Shadow Spirits
by Rambeltilx
Summary: The cucco girl of Kakariko Village, Anju, discovers the truth behind the shadow spirit haunting the village well. Occurences take an unexpected turn, and she finds herself seduced by the darkness within... Anju x Kafei, multichapter.
1. Prologue

Gah! Sorry for the delay in stories. I've been busy with schoolwork, college applications, etc. for a while. I also went through a dramatic interest change, the outcome being my first Zelda fanfiction. Well…first _posted_ Zelda fanfiction. As some of you know, I'm absolutely in love with Kafei and Anju, from Majora's Mask. Sadly, Ocarina of Time is a much better game than Majora's Mask. So…my solution? Mix them. The outcome? Something weird and dark that I'm surprised I thought up. Oo Anyways, it'll be multi-chapter. Rated R for strong sexual themes and possible language. Beware of my overuse of artistic license, by the way. >> 

**Shadow Spirits**

"Link! Get back!" Sheik demanded as he stood over Kakariko Well, an unnatural growling sound coming from the deep stone trench. 

Get back? Link? Never. He hadn't taken that option once since his quest began. It was then the growling noise reached his ears and he felt the hairs on the back of his next stand up. Despite his fear, however, he reached behind him and grabbed his sword as if preparing for battle. 

Just as soon as he had his shield in hand, however, the top of the well was blown off violently and thrown against a nearby building. Link braced himself, hand gripping the Master Sword tightly, but to no avail. Soon after he felt a horrible pain in his abdomen as if something was squeezing him too hard, and he felt as if the wind had been knocked out of him. He was then lifted off the ground, tossed around wildly by some invisible force and, despite the fact that he couldn't breathe…or see the monster; he waved his sword frantically in an effort to stop it. This resulted in his back slamming against a building and his world going black. 

"Good…you're coming around." Link heard Sheik's voice close to him, and his eyes slowly opened. As his surroundings became less blurry, he sat up and rubbed the back of his sore head. Wincing, he looked to his friend. 

"What was that?" He asked as he attempted to stand, stumbling slightly. Sheik helped him up, then, dusting him off a bit. 

"That, Link, was the evil shadow spirit of Kakariko Well." Sighing, he leaned against a wall and looked to said well, "Impa sealed it down there many years ago…but it had grown so strong over time that it finally escaped." He stood up straight again, looking to Link and taking out his harp, "Link…you have to stop it. Impa has gone to the Shadow Temple to destroy it forever, but she will die without help. Please…" Sheik looked to his harp, fingers strumming the strings lightly, "I'm going to teach you the Nocturne of Shadow; it will take you to this temple of shadows where you must defeat the evil shadow spirit once and for all." 

As they played, Link felt the same eerie sensation as before; the feeling of true darkness, awakened by this song. He could tell he wasn't going to enjoy this next temple. 

After braving the bottom of the well, Link set out to liberate the Shadow Temple of the evil that plagued it. Many hours of dodging guillotines, slashing Dead Hands, and dredging through nightmarish terrain led him to his final destination; the lair of the shadow spirit that had long since been plaguing the area beneath the nearby village. He gripped his sword in hand, overwhelmed by the feeling of darkness surrounding him as he fell through the seemingly eternal black oblivion. Not soon after, however, his feet hit strangely elastic flooring, and a dull thud echoed throughout the circular room. There was nothing there. Nothing except the foul smell of stagnant water and darkness. He took a few steps, and with each he heard the sound he had heard echoing through the entire temple. Eyes widening, he looked down. 

He was on a giant jungle drum. 

No sooner had he made this observation that two massive shadowy hands emerged from the black walls around them, both slamming down on either side of him. The drum shook fiercely then, causing Link to lose his balance and stumble about for a moment. As the vibrations ceased temporarily, Link looked up to see a huge fiery eye glowing through the darkness, staring at him. The hands then began to beat the drum in a steady rhythm and the shadow spirit's body finally emerged from the surrounding oblivion. 

As the drum beneath him was played, Link found it nearly impossible to keep his balance. He pulled out his bow and arrows, none the less, and attempted to hop away from the massive hands that were switching between playing the drum and trying to throw him off into the surrounding toxic water. By skill and a few strokes of luck later, the Hero of Time had paralyzed both hands with arrows, causing the giant body to fall on the drum. Relieved that the world had stopped shaking for now, he drew the Master Sword and ran up to the vulnerable eye, impaling it on the sacred blade. He slashed and slashed and slashed until finally the creature let out a roar and its shadowy hide began to hiss and burn, eventually deteriorating completely. Triumphant, Link collected his prize and then left for the Chamber of Sages. 

The lair left behind was far from empty, however. As Link disappeared into the light, another figure emerged from it. 

"You should have stayed where you belong." Impa spoke in an almost sarcastic tone. As she did, the dim face of a Keaton's mask emerged from the shadows before her. 

"The Dead Hands are sore losers when it comes to cards." A deceptively soft male voice spoke from behind the mask. Impa smirked. The voice then sounded more serious, "Will you tell him that he hasn't destroyed this 'dreaded shadow'?" 

Impa stood in silence for a moment beneath the light, her arms folded over her chest as if in thought. 

"No," She spoke softly, "Not if you go back to the well and stay there." 

The shadow spirit cringed behind the mask. It was something he had to do, though…his powers had been weakened again and he knew with another encounter this Hero of Time would defeat him. 

Impa nodded as the mask disappeared, small smile on her face. She then looked up, feet rising off the floor as she was taken to the Chamber of Sages to present the Hero with the Shadow Medallion… 

A dark shadow crept across the walls of Kakariko houses, moonlight it's only witness. As if in no hurry, it found its way into the well again, the stone barrier breaking to make way. It paused for a moment as if to soak in the remaining moments of the outside world, and then disappeared into the darkness beneath the well once more. 


	2. Silly Superstitions

_One year later…_

Anju had never been good with keeping her cuccos in one place. After breeding the pocket cucco, she assumed that their smaller size would make them easier to manage. However she proved herself entirely wrong many times, as this new breed of cucco got lost more frequently. Due to smaller size, they were even harder to find than before, even if they didn't give her goosebumps. 

Today was no exception in the cycle of losing cuccos. Just as Anju stepped from the front door in the morning and turned the corner did she note all of her prized flock was…yet again…gone. She sighed heavily, and as if to mock her current predicament, it began to rain. 

"Cuccoooos!" She called out as if it would help. It never did, but it was more of a habit now anyways. Sighing again, she began to make her way around the village slowly, trained eyes searching every crevice and cranny for signs of her missing flock. They were scattered about as usual – many hiding in crates, others pecking around the windmill, others in yards, on roofs, etc. After an hour, Anju stood before her cucco pen, counting them all. 

One was missing. 

But she had looked everywhere! 

Except… 

Cerulean eyes winced slightly as she heard a familiar clucking sound from behind her. Cringing, she turned around to face…the well. 

Slowly, she began to walk towards the well, hoping to the goddesses that what she knew was down there…wasn't down there. Finally she peered over the edge. The bottom was dark, but still light enough for her to make out the distinguished shape of her last cucco. She groaned, and then looked around. Nobody was there for her to request assistance from. Cringing again, she looked down to her cucco again, and then to the ladder leading down into the darkness. 

Anju bit her lip as she moved over to said ladder, hesitantly crawling up and over the side of the well, beginning her descent. 

There was nothing to be afraid of…right? Link had came a year before and destroyed the evil in the well. But still…silly superstitions and memories of the horror stories that had kept her up at night when she was younger brought about a pallid look upon her face as it slowly grew darker. 

"Cucco…" She cooed as her feet remained a few steps from the bottom, looking back at the bird. It looked at her as if confused, then pecked at the ground some more. Wincing, Anju reached out farther for the cucco. It backed away from her before pecking a bit more, and then it found its way into the dark doorway behind it. "No!" Anju cried out, arm drooping after a minute. 

Perfect. 

With another groan, she hopped down from the ladder and slowly began to walk after the cucco, into the shadowy depths of the well. 

As she entered the subterranean area, the light from outside seemed to fade immediately, which only made her more timid. The fact that the first thing she was a skeleton against the wall didn't help much either. She yelped, taken aback at first before she saw the cucco. Well, at least it was an enclosed room… 

No sooner had she thought that did the bird hop right through a wall. Cerulean eyes widened. Perhaps it wasn't superstition after all…. Gulping, she went after it, finding herself able to walk right through the wall as well. She was then faced with another ladder, which she climbed down as well, only to find the bird hopping through a hole in the wall. Groaning again, she stood for a moment, building up her nerve before setting off after it. 

Needless to say it was a tight fit in the hole, but she managed to squeeze through with a bit of struggling. She was now faced with a bigger room lined with streams of stagnant water that made her thankful the village's drinking supply now came from Lake Hylia. Frantically, she looked about for her cucco, and as soon as her eyes were set upon it, it was devoured by a giant…flaming…flying…skull. Not long after its hollow eye sockets turned to face Anju, who could only manage a scream after a few moments. She turned to scramble back through the hole, but she soon realized the skull would reach her less time than it would take for her to squeeze her body in again. So, on a whim of panic, she set off away from the skull, running through the dark catacombs, wincing and yelping as the rotten water splashed up and burned her ankles. 

So many corners she turned, so many unseen holes in the floor she had fell through. Narrowly had she escaped the rotten grip of many a corpse's hand. The skull had probably stopped following her some time before, but she had not intention of standing still in such a place as this. 

Until, that is, she came to a dead end, save for an old door that looked like it hadn't been touched in years. As she looked behind her, however, she could hear the moans of the dead drawing near, leaving her with no choice but to open the door…. 


	3. Force

Not a moment after Anju had entered the room, had the door slid shut, steel bars quickly following it. With a jump, she looked back, horrified look on her face as her heart sank. … She was trapped now, in this terrifying place... Cerulean eyes blinked widely as she turned to face the rest of the room of which she was now hostage, to find.… nothing. Only darkness met her eyes, her lips falling agape in a small pant. She was trapped, alone... in the dark? Withholding a slight sob of distress, she strained her eyes to see into the depths of the room, too afraid to leave behind what seemed to be something of a possible escape.

It was at that moment that a pair of torches flared to life, blue flame bursting forth from nothingness. Dim light seeped forth into the room, illuminating what seemed to be gray stone walls. Then another pair slowly sparked to life... and as the light seemed to reveal more of the room as if a curtain was being drawn back, the flames caught in a pair of deep garnet eyes, which seemed to slowly blink. Suddenly, a pair of lips became visible following the eyes, which would have been thought to be delicate if it were not for the smirk that curled it's way onto them within the next moment.

Upon catching sight of someone else in the room, a feeling of relief flooded her system -but only momentarily. Upon further inspection, the blood seemed to drain from her body. The figure, a man, across the room from her was sitting in a rather sinister looking chair -nearly in what she would consider a throne of a sort, only twisted and blackened into something that looked as if it would lure you to sit on it and move to destroy you faster than you could realize that a chair was about to murder you. On top of that, the figure in the chair didn't seem quite... human.

Before she could study him further, with a quick gesture of his wrist, a mask was placed on his face. Colored a decaying yellow, details a darkened blood red, Anju identified the mask to be the Keaton's mask. Yet.… there was something wrong with it. The eyes seemed to slant too much, indicating that it served a much more darker purpose than then mask she had come to know. Inhaling a shallow breath, hand frailly reaching up to her heart momentarily, Anju took a step forward.

"Hello.", spoke the man in what sounded a cryptic tone, causing the poor cucco lady to jump, back hitting the metal bars of the door. A deep laugh escaped from behind the mask. Her lips parting helplessly, she found herself nearly pleading "How do I get out of here". Her voice was meek and pathetic, and she felt ill as a chill ran down her spine. To this, the man seemed to muse for a moment, unfolding the leg that had be previously folded over his knee and leaning forward in his seat to peer at Anju. She shivered, feeling helpless.

"What is your name" he asked, blatantly avoiding her question, a smile gracing his features behind the mask.

Cerulean eyes widened, caught off guard by the sudden change in topic. Why was this... seemingly superhuman being... asking her name? Especially since all of the other creatures of this well seemed so intent on pulling her apart limb from limb.

"Um... Anju." she replied faintly, feeling her heart race. Could it be that... she could trust him?

To that, he tilted his head slightly, dark violet hair falling in front of the mask.

"Anju..." he repeated, tasting the name on his tongue. "A beautiful name." Upon his words, Anju seemed to sharply intake breath, her previously flushed cheeks burning in a blush, as if in shock that someone so... complimenting... could exist in this place of death and decay.

Garnet eyes catching this, another amused laugh passed from his lips. Afterword, he seemed to sit there, contemplating something, before he stood from his seat.

"I have forgotten to introduce myself... I am Kafei.", he announced, giving a bow -three yellow fox-like tails revealing themselves from behind his back, curling around in the air.

The rather proper introduction did nothing to calm Anju's nerves, however, finding her back pressed up against the bars of the door. "What... do you want" she asked slowly, heart beating quickly upon realizing that he had just avoided her question from before.

"It's quite simple really..." he began, sitting down again, only this time moving to sit sideways in his chair, while his legs threw themselves over one of the arms of the chair. However, despite the fact that his mask remained in place, Anju sensed that he was watching her from the corner of his eye. Having grown quite unnerved by this time, she slightly huffed, letting her head fall back against the bars of the door.

"Are you... going to kill me" she asked, voice revealing slight agony.

At this, Kafei looked over to the woman again, tilting his head. A slight laugh escaped his lips yet again. "Have you any idea of... what... I am"

In Anju's mind, every story, rumor, myth, fact -all about the well- she could recall from childhood to recently came to her mind. With a nearly violent shiver, she knew that... in fact... all that she could remember was really nothing at all.

"No..." she breathed, covering her face with her hands, peering through parted fingers in horror.

Why couldn't she had just left the cucco for the next day.… ?

Then he spoke again, rising from his seat.

"One does begin to wonder how to escape these walls over the span of decades.…" he began, his gaze wandering aside as if in remembrance of time past.

He took a step.

"It becomes rather quiet here.… Lonely... I must say." he began, looking toward her again.

He took another step.

Anju gasped suddenly, hands rising to her mouth in horror in realization of what this "Kafei's" intentions were. Breathing shakily, she slowly dropped her hands to her chest.

"Please... Let me live..." she begged.

By this time, the man had walked up a but a few paces from her. At her words, he let out a sudden and deep laugh -while closing the space inbetween them, one hand reaching past her head to lean against the door, while the other found it way to her neck, fingertips caressing the skin from beneath her ear to her pounding pulse. Her breath grew short.

"… Give me one reason to." he seemed to murr softly, the gentle had at her neck threatening. She shivered.

Anju's lips parted, ready to speak. She had the urge to say "I'm just a village girl" … but what good would that do? If anything, it may only give him reason to kill her or keep her. She was inconsequential.

She wouldn't be missed.

"I..." she futilely began, only to close her mouth helplessly again.

"Hm.", Oozing a satisfied smirk from behind his mask, Kafei pulled away from her, returning to his seat. "I thought so." He sounded amused -was that all she was to him? Entertainment?

Anju then felt a sob build within her, throat stinging. This couldn't be it... This had to be some kind of nightmare that she would wake up from...

"Don't worry. I have no intent upon killing you... for the time being.", Kafei commented, shifting into his previous position of sitting sideways. As he did this, the dark shirt he wore fell open, and Anju could not help herself from blushing.

"Come here." he commanded, not looking at her, but pointing to the space next to his chair. Too frightened not to obey, she found herself dreadfully before his chair.

At this, she heard him intake a passive breath, hand coming up to the mask. Within the next instant, he had removed it, revealing dramatic burning garnet eyes that seemed to hold no reflection in them. Anju had let out a slight gasp.

A small confident grin stretched his lips, while a hand raised up to stroke her cheek softly. Anju strongly resisted the urge to flinch.

"Undress." he commanded smoothly, smugly smirking at her. -However, cerulean eyes only widened in shock, before a slighlty frightened look appeared on her face, slightly shaking her head.

Kafei's smirk turned sour, as he tilted his head to the side.

"Have you forgotten how" he asked, traces of growing force in his voice, which led Anju to take a step back, lifting a hand hesitantly to her vest, shakily beginning to unbutton it. A few moments passed, his smirk returning strongly. Before long, he stood up quickly, causing her to jump. Within the next moment, his lips were pressed up against her ear.

"Too slow."

And he all but ripped the vest from her chest, causing Anju to yelp. He grabbed her wrist as his other hand proceeded to undress her until she stood before him in nothing but her underwear. Kafei then released her wrist, to which she quickly brought across her chest in an attempt to cover herself up. Breathing quite unsteadily, she looked to him.

He tilted his head, slightly grinning.

"Well" he questioned.

Anju, holding back a sob, turned her back to him, and proceeded to lower her hands to her hips. However, at the last moment, she jolted off in a run toward the door, reaching it and banging upon the bars, crying out for anyone to open it. She would have rather dealt with the redeads outside than the horror that was waiting for her here. Not a moment afterward, however, she felt herself ripped back from the wall, and letting out a scream.

"Where is it that you think you're going, Anju", Kafei whispered dangerously against her ear, as an arm snaked around her waist as her wrist was held captive again.

"Let me go" Anju cried out, struggling against him, but to no avail. "I just... I just want to go home.…" a mangled sob escaped her mouth.

However, this nearly got no reaction from Kafei, except one of maybe want. The arm around her waist moved to slowly slide down her remaining article of clothing, while Anju continued to make a halfhearted attempted at pulling away from him -that was abruptly cut off as she was pushed to the ground, under him, feeling his breath on the back of her neck.

And within the next few moments, she was screaming.


	4. Shadow Spirits

With a mournful, agonized scream, Anju awoke, sitting straight up in…her bed?

After a taking a few moments to catch her breath, she lifted her hand up to her forehead.

Cold. Sweaty and cold. Blinking amidst still-heavy breathing, she looked around to take in her surroundings. She was in her own bed, in her own house, and the sunlight was pouring in through the windows. Outside she could hear the clucking of her cuccos as they no doubt scattered themselves around the village-

Her cuccos.

She suddenly hopped up and looked out the window above her bed, down to the pen. They were all there...except the one.

So it hadn't been a dream. Her mouth suddenly felt very dry, and her attempt to swallow only halfway worked. Her heart was now beating fast…and she sat back down on her bed. Looking down at herself, she noted that she was still wearing the same clothes as the day before…and they were dirty; very dirty. What was more noticeable was the fact that they were matted and torn in places…and she smelled just like the musk of the well…

Shivering at the memory of the horrors of the previous night, she moved to hold her torso as if cold. She tried to remember what had happened after…Kafei had…

Shaking her head as if to clear her thoughts, Anju then realized that she couldn't remember. It all seemed to get blurry after being thrown down on the floor. She couldn't remember what exactly, happened, but the excruciating details such as the warm trickling feeling down her back as her own blood was spilt. She shuddered again, nearly letting out a small cry.

And then she remembered the last words spoken.

_Until tomorrow._

Her eyes widened, and this time she did let out a small cry. Her hands covered her mouth in horror as suddenly more memories came flooding back to her. She was to return again tonight…and every night. If she failed to do so…it was promised that she would suffer the most painful and torturous death imaginable.

She remembered Kafei finally reaching his release while Anju screamed beneath his, crying and begging for mercy, writhing underneath his cold form in a futile effort to scramble away. She remembered staggering from the room once she was release, greeted with a flock of redeads. They did not attack, however, but instead stood aside and watched her as she stumbled past them, tears and blood staining her face. As if another force was moving her, she painfully dragged her way up the ladder to the moonlit village again, to her bed, where she fell asleep, still crying. But sleep was no release. Just a gateway to another horrible nightmare.

She sat for a few moments, staring at the wall opposite of her, recalling this secondary nightmare of hers. It all seemed familiar to her…and the more she thought about it, the more she recalled a story of similar plot being relayed to her as a child, from her grandmother.

Her grandmother.

She would know what was going on. But clouded by all the pain she was in, she wasn't in a much of a hurry after she stood up.

After an hour or so, Anju had managed to bathe, change clothes, and stumble out her front door. Apparently it was obvious that she wasn't feeling very well, as one of the carpenters dropped his load and offered to help her to her cucco pen. She refused, of course, then attempting to fend off any hints that she had been….well…raped the night before. The village would think she was insane if she told them that she had been violated by the shadow spirit beneath the well…especially since it was supposed to be _dead._

After what seemed like an excruciatingly long walk, she finally reached the door to her grandmother's potion shop. On the door, however, was a sign informing whoever read it that she was out for a field study. Sighing, Anju stood up on her toes to grab the spare key from above the doorframe, and then leaned down to unlock and open the door. Both actions were a lot more painful than they should have been.

Once inside, Anju found herself closing and locking the door behind her as if paranoid. Who was she kidding? She _was_ paranoid. Even if that…thing couldn't come out of the well…the very memory made her frightened…

The shop held its usual heavy scent of spices, and when Anju sneezed, she found that, too, to be painful. Whimpering slightly, she stumbled across the floor to the abandoned counter, peering over at the bookshelf behind, eyes clouded from the incessant pain of that morning. After a few moments of fruitless searching, cerulean eyes finally landed on…the book. It was bound in heavy black leather, the simple phrase "Shadow Spirits" scratched along the side of it. Supposedly it was passed down from generation to generation in her family, and she distinctly remembered being read to from this book when she was young; as a makeshift warning to never _ever_ go near the well.

Perhaps that was a lesson worth remembering. She would have mused over it, had she not feared that musing, too, would be painful.

With a cough, she stumbled around the counter and to the bookshelf, which she immediately rested against. Her fingers reached up, fumbling around the worn black binding of Shadow Spirits, attempting to grasp and pull it out. After a few moments, she was successful, but was only greeted with the very heavy weight of the book in her arms. She yelped slightly as one of the cuts in her back was reopened from the sudden lunge forward, wincing afterwards, moving to drop the book on the floor. She followed suit, slowly sitting down before it. Hesitantly she ran her hand over the cover of the book.

Supposedly it was written by the Sheikah, which would make sense since they were the race of Hyrule with the most profound knowledge of all things dark an unnatural. This was a story book of their kind. A story book….where all the horror stories…were real.

Slowly she opened it, the worn parchment and leather crinkling slightly. There was no title page or table of contents; the first page said in simple bold letters "The Well of Kakariko", followed by an illustrated story. The story was simply written, as if it was intended to be read to a child.

Cerulean eyes scanned the words, and Anju read aloud to herself.

"Long ago, The Great Impa (II) opened Kakariko Village to all races of Hyrule. The Sheikah were not pleased with this decision, but their faith in their great leader lead them to accept the change."

There was a simply illustration of Kakariko Village, the art style very clearly Sheikah. Anju turned the page.

"The people leaved together in peace, until one day, an intruder was born."

She turned the page.

"His name was …." She stopped. The name looked as if it had been scribbled out, only with…blood. Shaking her head, she resumed reading, "…Nobody liked this little boy, for he was different from the rest. Nothing good ever came from his presence, and his very being gave off an aura of death and misery. He had three golden foxtails like the ghost fox that haunted the village graveyard, and went to play with the fox every night."

There was a drawing of a yellow fox frolicking through the graveyard with a little boy…of blue hair.

Eyes widened, Anju suddenly had a flashback to her nightmare. A lone little boy sat at the foot of the steps leading up to the windmill, all alone, crying. When suddenly, as if morphing from the shadows, a golden fox emerged before him. The fox laughed, tails waving around in the air, and spoke a few inaudible words to the boy. Both laughed, but then the boy began to cry again. The golden fox then frowned.

"….." Anju shook her head and resumed reading, but was only greeted with the bloodied out name of the boy. Shivering, she skipped it, "…was given, or so it was said, two jungle drums from the golden fox. The boy never cried again, and stayed up all night with his bongos; playing until the sun came up." She turned the page, finding herself smiling slightly at the simply illustration of the little boy sitting on a roof playing bongos, a happy smile on his face.

"The villagers grew tired of the drumming. Every night, they were kept awake by the boy, his drums, and the golden fox laughing. They tried to talk to his mother, but their selfish and superstitious natures would not let that suffice their blood thirst…"

Anju felt dizzy as another portion of her dream came back to her.

"_Please, you don't understand…he's different. He's only a little boy…"_

"His mother pleaded for the villagers to accept her son and leave him be, offering them all of her money and all of her valuables. Greedily, the villagers took the offerings, leaving her at home with her sleeping son. But even after they villagers agreed to deal with the boy, they did not do as they said. Things got worse as he grew older, until it seemed Kakariko Village was covered by a never ending storm. The well flooded over, the cuccos died, the sun never came from behind the clouds anymore. The villagers all knew it was because of the boy; he was a dark child, a legendary Shadow Spirit; a plague upon the village; destined to live in the shadows, but born in the wrong place. Finally they decided the plague needed to end. They came together in an angry mass, demanding that his mother give up her son's life. When she refused…."

Anju turned the page, and she felt her heart sink in her chest at the illustration that took up the entire next page. A burning Kakariko Village. A little boy crying and reaching out for his mother…who was impaled…on a stake…over a fire.

She almost felt herself fall over as more memories of her dream rushed back to her, but she continued to read none the less.

"_MOTHER!"_

"The little boy screamed and cried for his mother, begging the villagers to take his life instead of hers. But the greedy, impatient villagers only promised him that both would be taken. They laughed as they held him down, making sure his eyes stayed on the screaming form of his mother as they readied the wooden spire before her body."

Her grandmother had forgot to mention _this_ part of the story.

"Before he could watch his mother be killed, a pair of arms grabbed the boy and pulled him away from the angry villagers, into the shadows, out of sight. The boy sobbed and cried, opening his eyes long enough to see that his rescuer was The Great Impa herself."

Anju found herself crying as she turned the page.

"The Great Impa told the boy to run to the well and hide there; that the only way for him to live was down there, away from the villagers…with his kind." Confused and hysterical, the boy complied, running screaming towards the well, The Great Impa following him closely. And the boy was never seen again."

The illustration was old and worn, and looked as if there had been blood spattered on it. She couldn't make out the picture.

"The Great Impa told the people that the great evil of the boy had been sealed beneath the well forever, but because of their hateful actions, the well was cursed, and they were to never drink from it again. No man knows what happened to the boy beneath the well."

Anju turned the page, only to be met with the incredibly disturbing full-page image of an inversed Sheikah eye, drawn entirely out of…blood.

"The myth has become true." Were the words hand-scribbled on the page next to the eye, followed by a few blank pages to indicate the end of the story. Shivering nearly violently, Anju shut the book and practically threw it across the room. Everything that had happened in that fable-turned-fact; even the parts she had never heard before, had been replayed in excruciating detail in her dream.

Kafei wasn't a dream.

Kafei was the boy in the story.

Kafei was the nightmare beneath the well.

She scrambled to her feet, beginning to cry. She was leaving the village. She would go stay at the ranch, with Malon. Kafei couldn't reach her there…he just…_couldn't._

But as she ran out from the shop, the sun had set, and the moon was rising. Terrified blue eyes looked down to the well, and she could hear her name being called…softly…playfully.

With a long, horrified scream, she sank to her knees and covered her ears.


	5. Resisting was Pointless

_Oh noes!11one My beta was MIA this weekend so Shelly had to beta it for me. She also helped out alot with rearranging stuff and making transitions better. So thanks, Shelly! ;_

_This chapter is a bit more graphic than the others, so be warned._

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* * *

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The redeads' laughs, twisted with their agonizing screams, echoed through the well as Anju found herself running through, turning corners as if she knew exactly where she was going. Crying, she covered her ears, the sounds making her body feel numb all over.

The air of the well was heavy with the stench of death and decay; in some areas enough to make Anju nearly gag. She hated this. She hated that she couldn't stop running. She hated how she felt like she was running…to her death.

When she finally stopped running, she stood before that same door as before, panting. She leaned against it to catch her breath, whimpering and crying still, dreading her entrance. But before she could move to stand up, the door slid open and she fell inside. This was promptly followed by it slamming down behind her, metals bars clanking over it to make sure that she would _not _get out.

Anju managed to prop herself up on her elbows, chest still heaving with sobs and heavy breaths. Cringing, she looked up to that same demented and twisted throne she had seen the night before…and the demon that lurked on it. He currently grinned down at her mockingly, a soft chuckle escaping his lips every now and then. Garnet eyes burned through the darkness, painfully penetrating Anju's weary gaze.

"I see you had to come back for more!" He laughed, disgusting sarcasm in his voice, his tails curling around the chair as he switched his position so that he lay more across the armrests.

"Why…" She began, watery cerulean eyes looking up to his laughing form, "You weren't a bad person…" She cried, moving to sit up, using her sleeves to wipe her eyes, "Why are you doing this to me…?"

At this, Kafei's laughter subsided, a rather twisted grin remaining on his face afterwards.

"Why, its simple, Anju. They hated me because they said I was a monster." He moved to sit in his chair normally again, leaning back into it, "They wanted a monster? I _gave_ them a monster." He chuckled, examining his claw-like nails idly, "It's funny what a little time alone down here in a cursed well can do to a boy…" Anju whimpered, not quite understanding what he meant. Apparently he sensed this, because within the next few seconds he was kneeling infront of Anju.

"See these?" He queried, holding up his hands so that she could see his claws…which were still slightly encrusted with blood from last night, "And these?" He grinned wider so she could note a few of his teeth being particularly sharp. "I didn't have these when I came down here." He chuckled darkly again, then moved back to his chair and sat, "Yes, that curse Impa put on this well to keep me in here…" He grinned again and laughed, "Well…dark magic is a dangerous element, as you'll come to understand in due time…"

Anju had no idea what he meant by that. Frankly, she didn't want to know. All her focus was on at the moment was the Shadow Spirit seated before her, chuckling darkly, eyeing her.

"You're the first villager to come down here in _years_ without a pitchfork and a determination to slaughter me!" He laughed again, standing and turning to walk back to his throne, lazily draping himself over the armrests again, "All those redeads out there? They were all villagers…once. But I saw to it that they felt the pain they had inflicted on me so long ago." His head fell back and he laughed, almost as if on a high.

"So why can't you let me go..." Anju whimpered, voice trembling with the rest of her body. She mad no effort to get up off the floor, knowing she was probably going to be there for the rest of the night anyways. Before he had a chance to respond, blue eyes happened to catch spatters of dried blood on the walls…_her_ blood. As the memories of the night before came flooding back to her again, she bit her lip and sobbed, hiding her face in her hands.

Kafei just continued to grin that twisted grin of his, moving a hand up to idly twirl a few strands of his deep violet hair around his fingers. He chuckled slightly to himself, before dramatically rolling his head around to face Anju.

"Now what kind of a monster would I be if I let you off easy _just because_ you didn't come down here to kill me?" He laughed again, but Anju failed to see what was so funny. Maybe that was because she was still looking at the wall splattered with her own blood, "And how do I even know that's _not_ why you came down here?"

Anju sobbed, collapsing against the floor, her hands clenching her hair.

"Why would I do that!" She suddenly screamed up at him, moving so she was sitting up, tears staining her cheeks, "As far as I knew you were DEAD!" Her voice cracked on that final word, and she cried out as, within the next few seconds, Kafei had her pressed against the wall via his menacing hand on her neck. Any trace of amusement was gone from his face now, replaced by anger…disgust…any number of unpleasant things.

"_Enough questions._" He hissed, garnet eyes burning through the darkness, glaring at Anju's blue eyes. She coughed and cried, barely able to breathe through the tight grip on her neck, "Now take off your clothes, before _I_ take them off with a few _other_ things." He dragged one of his claws along her neck to emphasize his point.

Anju whimpered pathetically, nodding as she gagged. As she was dropped, she fell to the floor, but she shakily began to remove her clothes…quickly, that is. She had learned from that mistake last night…

As she undressed, Kafei's face softened, and his sadistic grin spread across his lips again. Laughing darkly, he kneeled down, his hands finding their way onto her bruised shoulders…

Finally, after what seemed like hours of twisted torture, Kafei had…finished. Anju's breathing was heavy, her body covered in cold sweat, strangling cries escaping her throat now and then as nails dug into her skin and teeth scraped along her neck and shoulders.

Blue eyes slit open slightly as Anju whimpered, but then widened as she saw the look on his face. It was almost…caring. And gentle. There was no sadistic smile on his face…no hatred in his eyes. Slowly, he brought a hand up to stroke her hair, but before Anju could completely register her thoughts, his dark grin came back and the hand in her hair clenched down on her scalp, tugging her head to the side as Kafei leaned down to roughly kiss her neck.

Whimpering, Anju shut her eyes again, causing a few tears to trickle out the corner and down her cheek. This was only the second night…and already she felt as if she had been broken. Her whole body stung and burned from the cuts and bruises she had so recently received. Crying out as she felt teeth against her neck, she fell back, limp.

Resisting this was…pointless.


	6. Soft Spot

_Beta is gone for the week, so forgive me if it's crappy. >> Next chapter will be up soon, I hope._

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A raspy whimper escaped Anju's throat as her eyes fluttered open, her head suddenly surging in pain from crying so much the night before. Blinking slowly, she held a hand to her forehead and pushed herself so that she sat up. Blurred cerulean eyes took in the fuzzy surroundings…and she groaned s she realized where she was.

This wasn't the first time she had fallen asleep in the well, but going back up and having her mother yell at her for "sneaking out" was _not_ something she looked forward to. Whimpering again, she noted that she was still naked, and had obviously been sprawled out on the cold floor. She looked up again at the sound of Kafei's dark laughter to find him sitting casually in his 'throne', his garnet eyes burning through the shadows.

She crawled over to him slowly, whimpering, and then rested her head on his lap. He began to stroke her hair, his fingers weaving through auburn locks softly, almost comfortingly.

"Sleep well?" He asked of her, grinning down at her slightly shaking form.

It had been at least three months since their little…rendezvous' had begun. Anju had come to accept it now; he was her master and she was his pet. The more she fought, the more she hurt. The more she accepted, the more Kafei seemed to act almost…gentle. She even _liked_ it when he played with her hair like this, though it had taken her weeks for her to admit it to herself.

"Well?" Kafei's voice broke Anju's train of thought, and she moved to look up at him as if confused. He chuckled then, and ran a clawed thumb over her cheek. It hurt…but it was…nice, "Did you sleep well?" He repeated, certainly fake gentleness is his voice as his cold hand cupped her cheek. She looked down, shaking her head slightly, and then couldn't bring herself to look back up into his eyes.

Of course she hadn't slept well. The ground was cold and hard, and she had been more or less raped the night before. But of course, if she actually replied like that to Kafei, she would probably be killed.

"I..." She began, whimpering, "I need to leave..."

"What?" Any hint of gentleness or care was gone from Kafei's voice this time, and the hand in her hair grew more menacing than comforting.

"I…Master, I…" She whimpered, burying her face into his lap, "I'm sorry…my mother…she'll be so mad if I don't go home soo—aaiiihhhh!"

She cut herself off with a squeaking scream as Kafei's clawed hand roughly grasped her by the nape of her neck and lifted her up to eye level.

"You're not leaving me." He growled garnet eyes narrowed menacingly. He didn't seem to falter at all, watching her face contort in pain as his hand pulled constantly at the back of her neck and her hair, "You're _mine_."

"Y-you told me I could go home every morning!" Anju cried, reaching up to try and remove his hand from her. This only resulted in him roughly moving her onto his lap, his mouth moving down to the crook of her neck.

"Well it's not the morning anymore, now is it?" He grinned and bit down on the skin, his hands sliding down her naked sides almost s if he was trying to tease her.

…this was all too much. Anju finally felt herself break, and she collapsed against him in her sobs, hands clenching the soft and inviting fabric of his opened shirt. It wasn't pained cries this time, but rather sincere mournful sobs. Her life was ruined. She had a hell to go to every night and now a hell to go to every day thanks to her mother. She wanted to die.

"Please kill me. Please just kill me and let me wander around the well like all the others. Please…let me leave...but don't let me go back up there…" She sobbed into his shoulder, curling up in his lap, her fingers trembling as they clutched his shirt. She didn't know why she was confiding in Kafei…this was the man that raped her and beat her every night…and yet she felt attached to him in a way she couldn't explain.

And she _hated_ it.

To her surprise, he did not respond by smacking her across the cheek, or digging his nails into her back. He made no effort to comfort her, but instead just sat there in silence, staring down at her; but that was alright. It was the most comfort Anju had received in monhs.

"Because you're _mine_." He replied after a few moments. This caused Anju to stop her crying briefly, pulling back to look up at him. The way he had said 'mine'…he had almost sounded like a little boy…

He was trying to look at her sternly, but he wasn't doing a good job. Anju immediately noted the faint concern in his expression, causing her to almost smile. Her sobs were silenced now…and slowly she let her head fall onto his shoulder, her warm breath curling against the cold skin of his neck. She remained like that until…she feel asleep…her last flickering thoughts being ones of amazement at Kafei's sudden display of…compassion…and…understanding.

Meanwhile, Kafei wanted to kick himself. He was just sitting there with some powerless little human girl sleeping on his lap, with his hands on her waist. And he wasn't doing anything. She had just yelled at him; snapped at him, and then begged for sympathy from him….a feat which should have brought about her death. But he couldn't bring herself to touch her in any harmful away.

It appeared the all-powerful Shadow Spirit had a soft spot.


	7. And Anju Cried

_Long chapter this time. This one is also a bit more lighthearted than the others...sort of. Iknow it seems random now, but there will be explanations in later chapters. Stick with me. ;_

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Anju sat on her windowsill, sighing heavily as she watched the torrential rain outside. Her cuccos were scattered _everywhere_ by now, and surely were all soaking wet. While she wasn't allergic to her new breed, she didn't really want to go out, get wet, and then have to present her damp, feather-encrusted form to her lover- er….Kafei.

As she realized what she had been thinking, she groaned and let her head fall forward onto the cold glass of the window. Her thoughts had been mixed lately. Kafei seemed nicer than at first, and some nights she almost looked forward to her trip beneath the well! There had even been a few nights where she had sat before a mirror for hours, preening…so that she looked her best…despite the fact that she was going to be…well…raped.

Was it even rape anymore? She didn't fight it at all these days, and she didn't even really mind it that much. She didn't particularly like how he itemized her all the time, as opposed to acknowledging her sentient being, or respecting the fact that she had feelings on the matter, too… but…it wasn't as much of a bother as much anymore. She still cried every night, but that had become more of a …habit. She had to deal with it anyways, so why fuss so much over it?

Resurfacing from her moment of deep thought, Anju turned away from the window and let her eyes fall upon her reflection in the mirror. At this, her spirit was dampened. She looked different now – she was more skinny and her skin was very pale…_not_ the attractive kind of pale. It looked…cold; pasty almost…as if she were a corpse. There were circles under her eyes, and on her arms and neck there were bruises, cuts, and bite marks. Her hair had obviously not been cut in a while, and thus was the slightest bit longer than it normally was. Aside from that, though, it _was_ a very rich red now – not faded in the slightest; probably from her total lack of exposure to sunlight.

She smiled at that rather optimistic observation, her slightly blue lips curling upwards at the corners. It was a genuine smile; something she was beginning to learn again, though only recently.

"Anju." Her thoughts were shattered at the sound of her mother's particularly unhappy voice breaking the former silence of the room.

Here it comes. Play it cool. Nothing is wrong…

"Yes, mother?" Anju asked sweetly, turning to face the woman, smile still on her face…though this time it was forced. Her mother stood at the doorway, arms folded across her chest, a steady glare fixed on her daughter.

"Don't give me that sweet little smile of yours, Anju. I'm not falling for that one again." Anju did not obey, but instead tilted her head to the side.

"What do you mean?" This seemed to enrage her mother, her eyes narrowing menacingly as she took several rigid steps to the window where Anju sat.

"I saw you last night. I watched you leave the house when you thought everyone was asleep, and then I saw you go into the well."

Anju's smile finally made its exit, and she felt like someone had just punched her in the stomach with a bag of ice. Widened blue eyes looked up to her mother in shock. How was she supposed to respond to that? What was she supposed to tell her?

"I…don't know what you're talking about."

"You know exactly what I'm talking about, young lady. I'm not dumb. And I know that wasn't the _first_ time you've gone down there at night."

Anju gulped, probably audibly and then brought a hand up to adjust the neckline of her vest. Her mother had her in a corner.

"Look at yourself! You're deathly pale, and you have…_hickies_ all over your neck and shoulders!" She put particularly emphasis n her disgust towards that one particular word, and Anju cringed and brought a hand up to cover one of the more prominent ones on her neck. As if it would do her any good to hide one out of…one hundred, "I know there's a boy, and I know what you're doing down there, Anju. Though why you'd choose the bottom of the well baffles me, but well or not, it needs to stop. _Now._"

Anju had to try really hard not to smile...or laugh. Her mother thought she was having an affair with a random village boy, and that the well was only a meeting spot for their wild escapades. Though it wasn't really funny, the irony was what amused her.

"Who is it?" Her mother hissed after no response from Anju. The girl just stared dumbly up at her, and the woman then grabbed her chin and forced her to look up at her, "_Who is it?_"

"You don't know him," was the best response she could come up with on the spot. That, too, almost made her laugh. Her mother obviously didn't find it amusing, though, as she only growled in response.

"If this continues, Anju, I will make a point of _getting_ to know him, and I will make sure that he _doesn't_ want to get to know you further."

At this, Anju couldn't help but giggle slightly. The mental image of her mother taking on Kafei was too funny.

This apparently sent her mother off the edge…again.

"What is so funny!"

"Oh…its 7:00, I have to go."

"You're not going anywhere, Anju."

"Hmm." She moved to stand up, removing herself from her mother's grasp easier than she thought she could.

"Anju, if you walk out that door-"

"-then I'll walk out that door." She didn't even let her mother finish as she sauntered out the door, then made her way towards the well in the still-pouring rain.

Well…that had taken more courage than she had ever felt in her life. But she felt liberated somehow…even if we she was walking towards another…

"Rape."

"What?"

"Rape, Kafei. Rape. Rape is not good. If you like a girl, you don't rape her."

"What the hell do you know about any of this? You're dead!"

"That's your fault."

"Who ever said I liked her?"

"Your face does. Every time she leaves, it's that same forlorn expression on your face."

"You're reading too much into things, Alan. She's pretty. I don't like her like that."

Kafei was seated on his throne, having a surprisingly humane conversation with one of the many redeads that roamed the bottom of the well. Well, in actuality, the redead was speaking via a series of groans and screams, but obviously it was normal for this kind. Kafei understood it because…he was raised in it.

"You do." Alan leaned back against the wall next to Kafei's throne, "Because she reminds you of your mother."

At this Kafei fell still and silent. After a moment, he turned to face the redead, burning glare in his eyes.

"How dare you!"

"How dare I what? You killed me for nothing, Kafie; I think you owe me a few." At this, Kafei grumbled and sat back in his seat.

"She sort of looks like her I guess."

"Sort of? Kafei, she's like a _clone _of your mother…only without the blue hair."

"I didn't kill you for nothing, idiot." Kafei was trying desperately to change the subject, but he was obviously jittery, as he kept running a hand through his hair.

So…Anju did look like his mother…a lot. Not to mention she was gentle...and kind…and beautiful, and everything his mother was…but she wasn't going to leave him as his mother did. She was _his_.

"You killed me for a stupid reason, then. And now my skin is falling off and I lose body parts regularly. My profession is apparently trying to stop the Hero of Time from kicking your ass by jumping on his head and trying to eat his brains or something. I can't even _talk_ anymore. Listen to me, I sound like a train wreck! Now tell me that's _not_ a horrible lifestyle."

"It's not a lifestyle, idiot. You're dead."

"YOU'RE IMPOSSIBLE." Alan threw his hands up into the air and shrieked in a frustrated manner, though it was to be taken as more of a groan. He was just about to proceed with his lecture to Kafei when both of them heard the beginnings of footsteps in the distance, "She's coming. Don't rape her, Kafei."

"I'll do what I want."

"Exactly, so don't rape her." Kafei had just opened his mouth to retort angrily, but before he had the chance to actually say anything, the door slid opened and a particularly wonderful looking Anju stepped in through the door. Alan snickered, but it was actually more of a disturbing and crackly groan. Anju shivered at this, and then moved to the opposite side of the room.

"Look what you've cursed me to, Kafei. A life where people are afraid of me. Honestly, and then you get mad at me for trying to help you…" Sighing, Alan shook his head and then moved to exit the room.

It was then that Anju noticed there were no metal bars over the door today. Even after the redead left…there were still no bars. Blinking slowly, she looked back to Kafei, who was looking off as if in thought. Angry thought

Blushing slowly, Anju approached him, and then found herself sitting on his left knee. Her hands were folded in her laps as she looked at him as if she was expecting something out of him, a faint blush still spread across her cheeks. He then moved to rest his elbow on the arm of the throne, pinching the bridge of his nose between his thumb and index finger for a few moments before turning to force a smile at Anju.

"Good evening." He said…sort of sweetly, through gritted teeth. She smiled in return, nodding.

"Hello…"

He began to tell her to undress, but then he stopped himself. He began to undress her himself, but then he stopped. Don't rape her. _Don't rape her._

So to further prevent himself, he folded his hands in his lap and forced another smile.

"How are you?"

Anju blinked, but didn't respond. That was a first. Kafei never asked her those sorts of things. Usually the only question he asked her was would she rather face him or the floor, and half the time he didn't even listen to her answer.

"…tired.." She responded honestly.

"Well don't think that's going to get you off of the usual." He nearly cut her off, then paused to collect himself, "I mean…well…do you want to do something else tonight?"

She blinked again. Something else? What else was there to do?

"Like…what?"

"Like…" He began, before looking up to her sheepishly. For the first time, Anju saw him blush…and this made her smile.

"…….." He began to smile, but it faded, followed shortly after by his blush, "…undress."

"But..Kafei, you-"

"What did you call me?"

"….Master…"

"Undress. Now." Anju whimpered, but then obeyed.

Growling, Kafei practically threw her down on the floor, then moved to crawl on top of her. She was _his_. He could do _whatever _he wanted with her.

…and then, for the first time in weeks…Anju truly cried.

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_Your reviews and stuff are what keep this fic going. Feedback, please:D_


	8. Dream

"It's warm" Anju thought to herself, though spoke it out loud as well. Her cerulean eyes fluttered open, and she was surprised to find herself standing in Kakariko Graveyard. It was a sunny day and there was a warm breeze drifting through the area. Anju smiled and took in a deep breath, but then noticed that, despite the breeze, neither her hair nor her clothes were being rustled in the slightest. Blinking, she turned around to find herself facing Kafei's neck, barely inches fro her face. Gasping, she swallowed hard and looked up at him, blushing slightly.

"Master?" She began weakly, but he stopped her by holding a finger to her lips.

"Call me Kafei." He said gently, moving his other arm around her waist slowly. Anju gasped again, and then looked up into his now bright garnet eyes.

"You're warm." She whispered, finding herself unwittingly moving her hands up to rest on his chest. Kafei just smirked, and then looked at something over Anju's shoulder.

"You remind me of her." He said, gaze still adverted. Blinking slowly, Anju looked over her own shoulder to find that they were standing on a grave. The headstone was obviously very old; it was darkened, worn by rain and wind and rocks over the many years it had been there. The name was not legible, but Anju knew who it was.

"I'm not her." She replied in a whisper, turning back to face him. He, however, continued to stare at the grave as if it was going to say something. After a few moments, however, he sighed and then looked back to Anju, bringing a hand up into her hair.

"Your hair is just as soft as hers." He started in a half-whisper, his hands then trailing down to her eyelids, "And your eyes, both so gentle and, harmless." He smirked slightly as her eyes fluttered shut. Hand shifting again, he then began to caress her cheek with his thumb, "Your skin, it's so smooth, soft, like hers was. And your lips..." He slowly dragged his thumb over her bottom lip... and she blushed, "She used to kiss away all the pain. All the tears I had ever shed because nobody would play with me, nobody liked me; she would kiss it all away..." He moved his hand down her neck, and then began to lean towards her slowly until their foreheads touched, "Anju?"

A hush suddenly came over their serene surroundings; the birds ceased to chirp, the wind ceased to gently howl in the trees. It was as if time had frozen around them, and then it all disappeared. All except for Anju, who was suddenly jerked from her dream by a searing pain on her ankle. With a loud yelp, cerulean eyes flashed down to the source of pain; then to her surroundings. She was in the well again. But how could that be? The last thing she remembered was climbing sorely into bed after sobbing all the way back home the night before. Could it be that...?

An auburn head of hair fell into pale hands, in slight distain. She had apparently taken up sleepwalking. With a slight groan, Anju then considered why her ankle hurt. Well... the only answer she could think of would be that either she had fallen through one of the invisible floors in the well while sleepwalking, or she had been attacked while unwittingly traveling through the well. But there didn't seem to be any monsters lurking about -that is, until Anju looked behind her, only to find a ReDead standing right over her.

With a scream, she scrambled to get up, only to fall right back down with a yelp of pain. Her ankle was worse than she had thought. With a whimper, she turned to look back at impending doom. However, what she turned to see wasn't that of a blood thirsty monster, but a considerate zombie that was holding his hand out to her.

"Come on, I saw you fall, you can't use your foot." Alan started, gesturing for her to grab on to his deteriorating arm. Unfortunately, all Anju could understand was a series of groans, and only moved to back up slightly, her foot dragging. Alan sighed in exasperation, crossing his arms in a huff. "Dammit, you can't understand me, can you? Just wait until I tell Kafei that I tried to help his little girlfriend and all I did was scare her away because of this damned-" he was cut off by a small bit of laughter from Anju, who had found the ReDead's behavior slightly amusing -before she brought a hand over her mouth in realization that she had just found a ReDead funny. Had Alan any eyebrows, one of them would have lifted. Again, he reached an arm out.

"I'm sorry if it falls off." he said, deciding that he didn't care that she couldn't understand him. Hesitantly, with a cringe, Anju took hold of the rotted arm, and made sure to put all of her weight on her other leg, using Alan's help only when she felt off balance; she could feel the dead arm's ligaments ripping every time she did so.

And, slowly, they made their way to Kafei's chambers.

The door fell shut behind Anju, who was now standing on her own... with support of the wall behind her. As she had entered, the ominous ruler of the well glanced up from his usual position on the thrown, dead garnet eyes slightly widening. He had not expected her so soon.

… He hadn't expected to come up with his next move after allowing her to have such an... intimate dream.

Picking himself up, he sat upright and desperately tried to figure out what to do; his eyes nearly darted from side to side of the stone room, making him to appear to be… a cornered animal. Anju looked on, head slightly tilting aside in curiosity.

He looked weak, he knew it, and it caused panic to run though his body. He felt the urge to grab Anju and show her that he was not weak... But he couldn't, that would destroy what he had tried to do in giving her the dream the night before.

W- Why was she so early? Why did she have to be there then...

Kafei's body grew rigid for a few moments, which incited a gasp from the woman standing across the room from him, fear of him visibly filling her senses; cerulean eyes glistening as they widened. At this, almost immediately, his features softened, eyebrows lifting.

… Before her arrival, he had just been lamenting his mother, previously aware of his presence in Anju's dream, intentionally weaving himself in and out of her consciousness. However, he was ignorant to the reason why she had slipped out to reality again, as he had intentionally extracted himself from her senses the moment she had snapped awake with pain.

They looked upon each other, startled breathing competing with the shortened breaths laced with pain. Both minds met in thoughts of the dream again, memories of a stilled breeze on their skin, the softness of each other's touch... and the warmth that had existed between them; Kafei's thoughts of his mother made him tender as he gazed upon Anju. Then, slowly, the usually dark figure rose from his seat, making careful strides toward the woman opposite him. As he reached her, garnet eyes looked down upon her with a new emotion that Anju had never seen him show her before... it was almost as if... but no. Their thoughts faded away as Kafei brought a hand up to gently caress her cheek, a longing passing between them, a desire to continue where the dream had trailed off. Kafei yearned to tread upon feelings he had yet to explore...

And within a few moments, warm lips had been discovered by those long cold in a tender kiss. Anju brought her hands up to Kafei's chest again, only for her fingertips to receive a slight shock to her system - the body in which they landed upon was cold. A soft gasp emitted from Anju's mouth as a realization trickled through her mind. Despite all of the... encounters ... she and Kafei had shared, not once had they shared the intimacy of a kiss. It had always seemed too personal, too... there she was, wanting to use that word again... Kafei, on the other hand, was not dwelling on any of that. His focus remained on the simple, soft, contact between the two of them; and he took Anju's gasp as an opportunity to deepen the kiss, pressing his lips to hers with slightly more force. As a hand ran into deep red hair, cerulean eyes fluttered shut, and Anju found herself returning the kiss. Before another moment could pass, the woman had her arms wrapped around his neck as she leaned up into him. Anju soon welcomed the sensation of a chilled tongue against her lips, gently ushering it past them and greeting it with the warmth of her own.

… It was not long until all of Anju's concerns about sleepwalking, her ankle, and her mother's wrath upon her return home, had fully dissipated. Something interesting had would take place that night. Instead of being a night of pain and violence, or a night of sweet embracing; Anju would be subjected to a lesser version of the "usual", spotted with many and frequent kisses that grew in intensity … and she would enjoy it...

… In fact, she would relish it.


	9. Only in Shadow

The gentle pitter patter of rain on the window is what stirred Anju from her sleep; the feeling of a hand harshly gripping her ear is what made cerulean eyes shoot open as she let out a yelp.

"Your cuccos are all over the village again, Anju. And it's almost 3:00! Why are you sleeping so late? Are you going back to the well at night?" Her mother's incessant nagging voice was not the best thing to hear first thing after one woke up.

"They always get out of their pen, mother..." Anju mumbled sleepily, pulling her head away from her mother's clenching hand.

"Don't use that tone with me, especially not after how you've been acting lately." The tone the woman used was a very biting one, and it wasn't long before her fingers were tightly grabbing onto her daughter's ear again, "Just WHAT are you doing down there, anyways? Or should I say _who_?"

Anju growled, but said nothing. This was getting annoying fast. All she wanted to do then was sleep, but her mother only wanted to nag at her.

"That's none of your business." She glared up at her defiantly, eyes narrowing menacingly in a way that no daughter should practice around her angry mother. This brought about an even angrier reaction from her mother, who then dragged Anju up by the ear into a standing position.

"Oh, it's my business if I make it my business; not that I even _have_ to. If you're going to live in my home, then you are going to do as I tell you and I'm telling you to stop with your little late-night rendezvous in that well." Her tone was icy and menacing, but Anju did not feel threatened; just incredibly aggravated. Her arms were by her sides, fists clenching hard.

Suddenly she felt a sharp stinging in her palms, but before she could react, her mother had glanced up and grabbed onto a rather sensitive…protrusion on her head.

"And what are _these_?" The older woman hissed, grabbing onto another located on the other side of her head.

What _were_ they? Anju had no idea, but they were obviously very sensitive and it rather hurt as her mother grabbed and yanked on them.

"OW." Was her only reply, unable to stop herself as she lifted a hand up, pushing away her mother's arms forcefully. It then took her a few seconds to realize that she had pushed her mother halfway across the room in doing so, and needless to say, the woman wasn't exactly pleased.

"How dare you!" She began, coming towards her daughter.

Alright, that was enough. She had to get out of that house and figure out what the hell was going on. Before her mother had a chance to grab her ear again, she had fled from the bulding and was outside in the rain, walking in no definite direction.

* * *

Anju felt soothed as the cool rain fell against her skin; now decided that she was going to her grandmother's. As she walked, she recalled the searing pain in her palms earlier, and opened her hands to inspect. Surely enough, there was a thin mix of water and blood trickling down her forearms, causing her to stop in her tracks and gasp. She followed the small red trickle p her arms and to her palms, where there were 4 small incisions in each hand. She had no clue what had caused it, until she glanced up and noted her fingernails.

True, she had really neglected to cut them in the past 2 weeks, but they were curved and sharp in such a way that normally it would have been impossible to achieve without filing them into such shapes – which she certainly hadn't done. They weren't particularly long; just enough to notice small points from the bottoms of her hands. Blinking, she shook her head and then took off at a much speedier pace towards her grandmother's shop.

…

On the way there, Anju had tripped over a few cuccos, but made no effort to pick them up and return them. Finally greeted with the comforting sight of her grandmother's door, she noted that the old woman was apparently out for another field study. Sighing exasperatedly, she reached up, grabbed the spare key, and unlocked the door.

She didn't even bother to light to torches or a candle as she entered the shop; she seemed to see fine in the dark. Of course, being preoccupied with other things, this didn't seem to strike her as odd at the time. Quickly she found her way behind the red curtain behind the service counter, met with the backroom that held the bookshelves, a bed, a vanity, and a small pet bed for her grandmother's pet…thing.

For the first time in several visits, she neglected the bookshelf and headed straight for the old vanity, seating herself before it. She leaned forward towards the mirror, tilting her head forward slightly to see just what her mother had been grabbing earlier. Surely enough there were two small protrusions poking out from her red hair, and upon further inspection, she found that the scalp around them was particularly red…and sensitive. Blinking, she looked closed at the actual appendages.

They were small, maybe the width of her thumb, black, hard, and pointed. It was almost as if she was growing…

…horns?

"Curse's can have strange effects on those who expose themselves to them." Her grandmother's calm voice spoke from behind Anju, causing her to jump slightly in her seat. Turning around in her chair, she saw the old woman standing in the darkness, holding a small candle as light. Strange…she hadn't even heard her come in.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, dear, that those horns are not unexpected, and those fingernails are not surprising."

Anju proceeded to turn the seat all the way around, folding her hands in her lap and tilting her head inquisitively. It didn't bother her that her grandmother knew what had been going on; she was a very gifted woman in that department. When Anju was younger, she had always seemed to know when she was in trouble or when she was causing it.

"…what do you mean?" She repeated herself, idly bringing a hand up to mess with one of her…horns.

"Anju, do you know why it is forbidden to go into the well?"

Anju rolled her eyes and nodded.

"The well is home to a dreaded shadow spirit who will kill all intruders, yes, I know, everyone does." She spoke in a drone-ish sort of voice as if she had heard that statement thousands of times in her life – which she had. Her grandmother just laughed slightly and shook her head.

"You've been read too many fairytales. That's not why the well is off limits." The old woman turned to the bookshelf behind her, and then turned around with 'Shadow Spirits' in hand a few moments later. She held it out to Anju with the hand that wasn't holding the candle, and Anju took it, confused.

"I've read this book, grandmother, and you used to read it to me all the time."

"You've read the myths from it, yet, but you haven't read the rest."

Anju was lost. She had flipped through this book several times since her meetings with Kafei had begun, but all she had seen were stories of demons and spirits that haunted Hyrule.

"Turn to the end of his story." Her grandmother said coolly, dragging a chair over next to her granddaughter, holding the candle up to the book so Anju could see the book better. Finally, her fingers found the page with the inverted Sheikah eye, and Anju turned to look at her grandmother. The old woman just looked up at her, "I said to turn to the end of his story." Anju was confused, but still she turned the page. As it was every other time she had looked at the book, the pages were blank.

After a moment, she raised an eyebrow and looked up to her grandmother with an inquisitive and confused expression.

"…it's blank." Anju stated the obvious after a few moments of silence, and then looked back to the book.

"It's not." The old woman spoke softly, and then blew out the candle.

As soon as the light was gone, the pages were illuminated with glowing writing, all in the Sheikah language. Anju's eyes widened as she skimmed over the symbols, until the realization hit her that she had no clue how to read Sheikah.

"It can only be read…in shadow." Her grandmother spoke, reaching over and bringing the book into her own lap, "It says that there is a curse upon the well that is keeping the spirit trapped. Anyone killed within the perimeter of this curse will be cursed for eternity, and anyone exposed too long to this curse will fall under it as well."

Anju gasped as everything rushed into her head all at once. The sleepwalking back to the well…the horns…the claws…She was being affected by the curse.

"I fear it's almost too late for you, Anju." Her grandmother closed the book and looked over to the girl through the darkness, eyes appearing as if she could clearly see her, "You'd best stay away before the curse claims you."

Comforted by the fact that her grandmother couldn't see her face, Anju found herself grinning.

"Yes, grandmother."

* * *

Not five hours later did Anju find herself walking through the well again, meekly offering waves to the ReDeads that she passed along the way. She found that they returned the waves, and then went back to wandering around the well seemingly aimlessly. She couldn't just _stop_ these meetings with Kafei – the other night had just been too…well, wonderful.

She wistfully recalled that first kiss and the many that followed, the feeling of his arms tightly wrapped around her body, that wonderful warm trickling down her shoulder as he…

That was the one part that bothered her. He had, like many nights before, bit her shoulder, but last night…she had enjoyed it; reveled in it; begged for it and moaned for him as he did it.

It had hurt, yes, and it had left a painful wound… but it had been so…wonderful.

Snapping out of her daydream, she found herself face to face with the door to Kafei's chambers. She took a deep breath and a moment to collect herself, then smoothed out the wrinkle on her dress and stepped forward into the darkness…


	10. Emancipation

Anju's mother didn't take any time to gently close the door to Anju's room, but instead slammed it shut as she entered angrily, once again enraged. "Anju, wake up!" She reached down and grabbed one of the girl's horns, yanking her upwards, "You went into the well again, didn't you!"

Anju yelped in surprise as she was rudely awakened. She inwardly sighed upon realizing that it was just her mother... again... bitching at her. Something poked at her brain, but she wasn't quite sure of what at that moment, other thoughts currently flooding her mind.

"And what if I did?"

For some reason, any idea of holding back aggression today seemed non-sensical.

Her eyes narrowed and she roughly dropped the horn, then stood back to glare down at her daughter. "What if you did? I'll lock you in this house for the next week if you talk back to me like that again. Just WHAT are you doing down there!"

"You'll do what?" Anju replied defiantly, quickly standing up from her bed and giving her mother a glare to return the one given to her.

What was it that she was supposed to remember today? ... It was something important... She was supposed to see Kafei today? -Well, she did that every day, so it couldn't be that...

She was already twitching however, trying to hold back a rage that would send her mother across the room so she could once again escape to the well. How funny... she'd never guess that one day she'd hope to be "escaping" to the well.

"I said I'd lock you in this house for a week." Her mother stood up to her, barely reaching above her height, glaring down at her, "And if you pull a little "hit" like you did yesterday, you'll never leave this room again."

A week... what was it about a week ago that seemed to make today important! She was excited... kind of happy... expectant...

Oh no.

Cerulean eyes widened momentarily in a shocked remembrance, before narrowing menacingly at her mother.

"And what good would it be for me to stay here!" she started, her eyes stinging.

"You wouldn't be going into that well anymore, that's what. And you wouldn't be getting impregnated by some...out of town nomad no-gooder!" So, true, she had just kind of made up a story to satisfy her curiosity about Anju's whereabouts, but...that didn't matter. She was in charge, after all.

"Oh. What makes you think he's some 'out of town nomad no-gooder?" she asked, a smirk coming across her face; the hurt she felt upon realizing that her mother had forgotten her birthday was being slowly replaced by another feeling. A darker feeling.

"And... I still don't know what you expect me to do around here... today."

She began to demand that Anju go gather her cuccos, but that would mean her leaving the house. "You will sit in here all day and all night. You will not leave...for anything. And if I come in here tomorrow and find you gone, so help me, I'll..." She'd...what?

"You'll... what?" she grinned, bearing down upon her mother. With a slight push to the woman's shoulder she advanced. "Bitch about and completely forget her daughter's birthday?" she asked, tilting her head slightly. After this, within the next moment, Anju had her grip tightly around her mother's neck.

"But wait..." she began softly, " ... you already have." And with that, she pushed back, causing the woman to sprawl out across the floor. Unwittingly sneering at her mother, a predatory growl left her mouth.

Her eyes widened as Anju grabbed her neck, and she began to gag as she was thrown down on the floor. She began to resist and get up to chastise her more before she noted the unnatural growl. At this, she was silent, staring up at her in horror.

"I know you've heard about the stories. They were bashed into my brain as a girl, so they were bashed into yours too." Anju began, grabbing her mother by her hair roughly. "You've heard what was underneath the well." she stated, throwing the woman back against the wall again at the end of her sentence.

She cried out as she was thrown against the wall, then sunk down to the floor, processing what Anju was saying. "Whatever it is, it's dead. Don't be insane." She replied bitterly, moving to stand up again.

"Then WHAT IS THIS!" she screamed, bringing her newly formed claws down across her mother's shoulder just as she began to stand. "Tell me, what are these!" she continued, pointing to her horns. "How did I get these!"

As she ended another sentence, the claws came down upon the woman again, this time to her cheek. "TELL ME!"

She screamed at the first set of claws, and then again at the second. She sank back against the floor, covering her head with her arms. "I don't know! Stop this!"

"Do you want to know? Hm?" Anju asked, a drop of honest curiosity coating her voice, raising her claws up for her mother to clearly see. After a moment, she growled again, grabbing the pathetic pair of arms that were used as a shield, yanking them up so that her mother stood. Her other hand came upon her mother's neck again, and this time gently tapping the woman's skin with the tips of her claws, rather than clasping down upon her mother.

"The evil under the well fucked me." she admitted her tone now nearly playful -had it not been the devious tone that oozed from it. She was taken aback for a moment, surprised at herself. She had _never_ used such language; she only heard the carpenters utter such words every now and then…

The older woman swallowed hard, cringing slightly as if in confusion as she looked at the girl. She stretched her neck out a bit, gulping as she felt the claws there. "...what?"

"The evil. Under the well. ... Kafei. He and I…we lie together…every night. We have been over and over...for the past SIX MONTHS!" She yelled into her mother's face, awaiting her reaction. It was too soon to move, she had to see her mother's face before she proceeded in ripping her throat out.

Her mother cringed again, mouth gaping slightly in heavy breath as she stared frightened at her daughter, unsure of what to think or say.

"It was people like you that killed everything dear to him." she began softly, looking at her mother, almost compassionately.

"... Like me." she finished, bringing her claws sharply across her mother's throat, blood instantly sprouting forth, some getting onto her hand and chest.

She tried to scream, but nothing came out. Just blood. She sank to the floor again, reaching up for Anju.

"What?" Anju asked, a slight laugh surprisingly leaking form her lips. "What do you want me to do? Sit here in my room all day and do nothing? Alright." she spoke moving to sit down upon her bed momentarily, before jumping up. "-No wait, I know! I should go out and collect my cuccos! Right? They must be running amuck around the village. Like they do... every day." deadpanning the end of the sentence, she walked toward the door, cerulean eyes flashing back to her mother, bemused.

"Or... I can go back to Kafei," she began, smirking, "and thank you for wishing me a happy birthday. Now don't move, we'll have a party when I get back." she finished, before walking out the door.

Anju grinned, slamming the door behind herself as she stepped from her house. She was greeted by cold rain on her face, feeling the semi-dried blood become moist again and roll down her cheeks. She smiled, refreshed at this, and then broke out in a run towards the well, feeling incredibly…happy and liberated…for some reason…

A happy giggle left her lips, before she broke out into a dash to the well. Practically hopping down there; she skipped through the cold, dead walls and putrid water. The ReDeads just looked on with slight confusion as Anju passed, waving joyfully to each and every one of them. It wasn't much time before she came to the door of Kafei's chambers, and grinned excitedly as she opened before her. Jubilantly, she made her way into the darkness.

Kafei quickly found a giggly and quite cheerful Anju in his lap, who was busy planting kisses along his cheek and neck. Eyebrow arching in question, garnet eyes gazed down to the girl. "Anju... It's only been a few hours since your last visit. Aren't you-", the shadow spirit was cut off by an abrupt kiss on the lips. Instantly returning it, his arms found his way around Anju's waist as he leaned into the kiss. Giggling, she pulled back after another moment.

"What's brought this on?" Kafei asked, smirking. Anju just grinned in reply, before deeply kissing him. Hands sliding up her back, he pulled her closer, kiss growing in passion by the second. However, it was cut short as Kafei sniffed the air, it brought his face to her chest.

"Why, Anju... You smell of blood." he stated, in slight surprise. At first, he looked at her to see if maybe she had been injured again. Seeing that she had not, he looked up at her with curiosity. "Well..." she began, before bursting into a fit of giggles. Kafei didn't wait for an answer for long, moving his lips beside her ear gently. "I like it." With a whisper, he licked her ear. Anju swooned in his arms, before moving to kiss him again. She waited no time to push her tongue past his lips, to his surprise, as a hand slipped into deep-violet hair. With a slight moan, he gripped onto her and returned the kiss. A few more heated moments passed, before Anju began to breathily speak against Kafei's lips.

"My mother... just forgot... my birthday..." was muttered, before the kiss ended.

"Today is your birthday?" Kafei asked, leaning back.

"Uh... yes." Anju responded, still rather breathless.

"Then why do you smell of blood?"

"Oh..." she giggled, "She forgot my birthday, and I killed her." Anju brought her hands to her face, and giggled into them excitedly. A shiver passed down Kafei spine. A few moments past with them like that, before they both acted on an impulse and were kissing again, Kafei gripping onto her lower back as it arched her body forward against his. Anju's hands raked through Kafei's hair, and a soft moan left her lips. He had no idea why the thought of the girl killing her mother was so... appealing, but it was. And she had no idea why the fact that she killed her mother excited her so.

They continued to kiss long past the moment in which Anju ran out of air, and she nearly slumped forward into him, gasping for air. Kafei's features moved to be of someone deep in thought for a few moments, before he slightly smiled. Within that instant, a cucco appeared before them, standing in front of the seat.

"Anju, look." he said, gesturing behind her. Anju curiously glanced behind her, only to jump back into Kafei slightly. "Oh!" she started in surprise.

"Happy birthday." Kafei said, before leaning in and slightly nibbling on her ear. The bird stood there, slightly confused, but pecked on the ground as if that would help it understand it's new surroundings. "Kafei!" Anju began, turning to look at him with a surprised look on her face. "Uh... I mean... master..."

Kafei pretended to not hear her call him by his name, and then leaned down to pick up the cucco. He was hesitant at first, having not seen a cucco since his days as a boy living in the village, but he soon got used to it. Anju giggled slightly, but then shivered and covered her upper arms with her hands.

"What's wrong?" Kafei queried, noting this strange behavior. Blinking, he tilted his head.

"Oh, it's nothing. I'm just kind of allergic to cuccos." Kafei raised an eyebrow, then looked to the cucco.

"But…you raise them, don't you? You told me that once..." He looked down almost as if ashamed, and then let the bird go.

"Well, I do. I just can't really…touch them." Kafei raised a brow and suppressed a sigh.

"Well if I'd known that I wouldn't have-"

"No, it's fine!" Anju interrupted, placing a hand on his cheek and smiling, "It's…the thought that counts."

The…thought? The fact that Kafei had more or less just given her a present then hit Anju, and she was silent for a while. After a few moments, Kafei had the cucco vanish again, and he looked to Anju, who was staring at him, inquisitvely.

"…what?" At this, Anju snapped out of her daze and looked at him.

"Oh…nothing." She smiled bashfully, and then placed a brief kiss on his lips. "I suppose I should get to undressing."

She began to push her vest off, but was stopped as Kafei's hand fell on her own.

"No, that's alright." He stopped for a moment as if internally struggling. Alan had been giving him 'advice' the other day, and…well, it was about time he used it, "I mean…wouldn't you rather go for a walk?"

Anju blinked.

"A…walk?"


	11. Black Acres

Author's Note: Sorry for the weird formatting...my secondary word-processing program was acting up. --; Thanks for all the reviews and stuff!

* * *

"Ummm..." Anju began awkwardly, looking down to the ground. She

wanted to ask Kafei why he was being so... nice. With the way things

had been going, she expected something a little more... vulgar,

maybe?

"Mas..." she trailed off, words dying in her mouth. What was there to

say? Cerulean eyes glanced over to him for a few moments. He looked so... human. It was attractive. With a smile, she looked away from

him, blushing.

Kafei, on the other hand, was very nervous, though he didn't show it.

This felt awkward, but that probably had something to do with the fact

that he hadn't really been around a living person in over a hundred

years. He was a bit more skilled at hiding his faint blush than Anju

was, but still, a hint of pink was visible. As time passed and their

stroll continued, he hesitantly brought a hand down, fingertips

brushing over Anju's as if suggesting he might have wanted to …

well...

He sounded so sappy. Weak, even. The fact that for one second he had

even CONSIDERED holding hands with this girl was absurd. And yet,

within the minute he was holding her hand; loosely, but he was still

doing it. As she began to speak and then trailed off, he glanced over

to her and raised an eyebrow. "What is it?"

Cerulean eyes widened in surprise upon the touch Kafei's hand on her

own. "Uh... nothing. It's nothing." she responded, still smiling.

However, her heart suddenly felt light, and she squeezed the hand

holding her own, moving it into a tight grip. With a slight giggle and

skip, she picked up the pace a bit in their walking. Their footsteps

fell silent in the morbid and dead well, but Anju couldn't remember a

time when she was beginning to feel so alive.

Kafei's face turned sour for a moment and he began to retort, but he

then stopped himself. He knew Alan was watching, and he didn't really

want to be chastised by that rotting bag of flesh again... After a

few more moments of walking, he cleared his throat, forced a smile,

and looked down to Anju again. "So ... if you killed your mother, what

are you going to tell people when you go back home?" A morbid subject

to match the chipper smile spread across his lips.

Anju stopped short, giggling. For a few moments, she looked at him

mischievously. Then she paused again, face dropping. She didn't know.

"I... guess I won't tell them anything." she finally shrugged, before

moving to continue on.

As she stopped, Kafei watched her curiously, finding himself rather

intrigued by the mischievous, albeit short-lived expression she gave

him, "Well..." He continued walking as well, looking ahead of him

this time, "… what are you going to do with the body?"

At least, that's what Kafei would have asked, had Anju not grown tired

of thinking about the consequences of her rash actions. Instead, the

girl playfully turned and threw her arms around his neck. Purring, she

kissed him briefly on the lips. Affectionately grinning, she quickly

moved to place a number of kisses on his lips, tightening her arms

around his neck.

As he was abruptly cut off, Kafei slightly sputtered before returning

a few of the small kisses. After a moment, he pulled back and looked

down at her, brow raised. "… are you ... purring?"

Anju blinked back at him in confusion. "What do you mean 'purring'?"

she asked as if he were trying to play a joke on her. Grinning, she

moved up to kiss him again, just before she loudly began purring

again. This time, she stopped.

"Oh... I am purring!" she gasped, putting a hand to her mouth. "How is

that happening?" she looked up to him questioningly.

He smirked and laughed slightly as she covered her mouth in an attempt

to stop the purring, and yet it continued anyways. "Well," He began,

though he had no clue exactly how it was happening, "You_ are_

changing..." He idly moved his hands to rest on her waist, looking

down at her, smirk still remaining on his lips.

Anju still seemed a bit shell shocked, as she bit her lower lip with

wide eyes. "But Kafei... why?" her mind slipped completely from the

'master-pet' relationship they had, and she looked to him as more of a

friend... as someone whose been through this sort of experience

already. She rest her cheek against his, her idle purring not ceasing.

"I..." He didn't seem to catch her free use of his name. Blinking, he

shook his head and leaned slightly into her warm cheek, "… you know of

the curse..." She pushed her back a bit, hands on her shoulders as he

looked down to her, almost as if considered, "If you keep coming down

here, soon it will claim you too." He had known this ever since she

came to him the first time, "… soon, you won't be able to leave the

well."

Her jaw dropped, even though she had already learned this information

from her grandmother.

"I... I know that, but... " she shook her head, "Why am I purring?

Why...?" cerulean eyes were muddled in confusion as they gazed up into

garnet. She almost found it amusing. Purring, of all things...

But... she still didn't understand why.

He laughed slightly, though it held a sort of melancholy air to it.

As they continued walking, he explained as best he could, "The curse

on this well was made using shadow magic. Shadow magic doesn't hurt

you directly like... dark magic," He stopped for a moment as if in

thought, then looked to her again, "It binds you. I am not hurt at

all by this curse, but I can't live outside of shadow and darkness."

He sighed and leaned against a wall, "Keaton told me of all this when I was

very young, but that was at least 200 years ago..." He shook his head,

"If anyone is exposed to a curse long enough, the curse takes a hold

of them and shapes them into what is was designed to bind... and then

they, too, fall victim. The curse is making you something that's definitely _not_ Hylian."

Anju slowly let her hand slide into Kafei's as she listened, nodding

every so often. Then at the mention of a new name, she looked to him.

"Who's Keaton?" Could it be another ReDead, like Alan? ... Well, no,

because Kafei just said that Keaton explained all of this to him,

meaning that whoever this person was... they were here before

Kafei... 200 years ago. Her jaw dropped fully this time. "How old are

you? How long as Keaton been here? Who is Keaton?" she started

suddenly, moving in front of him.

"Keaton... well... you've seen my mask, and surely you know the legend

of the ghost fox." He smirked, and then ran a hand through her hair as

she stepped in front of him. As she barraged him with questions,

however, he blinked and stuttered, "I... uh... well... he..." He

blinked again, "I don't remember how old I am... and I don't know how

long Keaton has been here."

Anju, now on a roll in her questioning, continued.

"Well... then... how old is Impa? If you're 200 years old, and the

books says she..." the girl began to look dazed, "And why do you look

so young? Does Keaton live down here too? Why have I never seen him

before?"

Kafei laughed and promptly held a hand up to Anju's mouth. "There has

been an Impa in every generation of Sheikah; it's reserved for the

most powerful woman in the tribe at the time. Keaton lives

wherever he wants, and I look young..." He trailed off, his smile

falling, "...because I'm... dead." He sighed, then looked off. He

could only imagine how much of a turn off that would be to Anju.

Anju blinked in silence for several moments, taking in what Kafei had

just admitted.

Dead? As in... dead dead? As in... six-feet-under-kicking-up-daisies

dead? Well, it would make sense... without any sort of life down

here, how could anything exist for long? Her hand squeezed his. That

must have been why he felt so cold. His entire body... every part of

it... held no warmth in it at all.

"Kafei..." she began, bringing up her free hand to his cheek. He looked pained.

"The curse... it changes you... and then you can never change back."

He sighed and turned away, "The curse was designed to contain a

monster, so... that's what I became. An abomination. The walking dead.

Everybody is scared of that..."

"No!" she shouted, moving his cheek so that he faced her. "No, you're

not..." she tried, emotion straining her voice. She sighed, regaining

slight composure.

"Kafei... I'm not afraid."

Taking in a deep breath, she leaned up and planted an affectionate

kiss on his lips. "So you're dead. To be honest, before you, I've

never met someone so alive." she whispered against his lips softly,

eyes fluttering.

Kafei stammered a bit, feeling himself go slightly rigid as she said

this. Looking down into her blue eyes, he felt something well up

inside him that he hadn't felt in a long time. Something he only

remembered feeling around his mother. Something like.… love. Slowly,

he turned the rest of his body to face her, hands resting on her hips

again. "… what?"

"I said that I'm not afraid." she repeated softly, now caressing his

cheek. After a few moments more, she pulled back, smiling.

"Besides, I'm joining you soon, aren't I?" she giggled, before taking

his hand in her own again, and giving it a light tug so that they

continued their walk.

He followed as she continued to walk, jogging for a moment to catch

up with her. He stared at her for a moment before speaking, "… you

know, you... don't have to come back anymore. You still have a little

bit of time." He really, really didn't want to let her go. But if...

on the off-chance that he loved her.… he wouldn't want her to be

trapped forever against her will.

"No... It would be hard to explain to people why my mother's rotting

corpse is in my room, as well as the claws on my fingers and horns on

my head." she giggled, looking to him momentarily. However, her

attention was quickly caught, and she moved to run up to the crossed

pieces of wood in the center chamber of the well.

"Flowers! ... There are flowers here? I've never seen them before."

Well, that may have been because each time she had been down there it

was either was some foreboding sense of doom that would cloud her

other senses. But there they were. Delicate flowers, looking somewhat

wilted and dead, growing in a small bed through the cracks of the

stones around the brown stains of old blood at the base of the wooden

poles.

As Anju ran towards the cross, Kafei began to yell for her to stop,

but he stopped in his tracks as he saw her stop at them to look at the

flowers, "… you didn't fall through." He blinked, wide-eyed, and then

walked over next to her, totally ignoring the flowers for now, "…

you... didn't fall through." He repeated, looking to her as if amazed.

"What?" she asked him quickly with a not quite listening ear, before

kneeling down to more closely observe the flowers. "They're so

beautiful!" she explained, looking up to Kafei. "Look! You must have

seen these before, right?" she asked, before taking one up and lifting

it to her nose. It was not what most would call fragrant, but it still

reminded Anju comfortably of sweet smelling smoke.

"Anju... this isn't a floor. It's a hole." He blinked, resting one arm

on one of the wooden beams of the cross, "The only way you can be

standing on it is if you're a..." shadow spirit, like me. He didn't

finish the sentence, but instead trailed off as he let his own words

soak in. So... it _was_ too late for her, even if she did decide to

leave. Something inside of him sank, but as he looked down to her

happy face, he felt happy again, "...they're called Kakarikos. The

village was named after them."

Not having caught his mutterings preceding his talk of the flowers,

Anju stood and handed some to him, giggles leaving her smiling lips.

"Kakarikos? Really?" she asked, looking down at them. "But... then,

why aren't they above the well too? Don't you think they would be, if

the village was named after them?" Her head tilted to the side

slightly, cerulean eyes looking up into his curiously. She had no idea

of her now sealed fate that resided beneath the well.

"They used to grow above ground. I suspect they don't anymore. When

more people moved to the village and built more, there grew less and

less room for... anything, really. Kakarikos are delicate, and they

only bloom at night..." He took one of the flowers and moved the

blossom to cup Anju's chin, and he smiled at her, "… but it's always

night down here."

Anju looked at him admiringly, and suddenly felt as if she would

swoon. There was something about Kafei tonight... She had never seem

him so... open before. Instead of remaining in his chambers the whole

night, they had managed to get out and explore the well. And she had

ended up learning so much... He was actually opening up to her now.

Returning to the well every night now hardly seemed so bad as it had

before.

Kafei seemed so much more a companion tonight than he had before, and

Anju... She bit her lower lip, knowing the feeling that was gently

enveloping her heart. She had felt it for a while, but had never

wanted to admit to it, out of fear of him. But somehow... Kafei seemed

so different from when she first met him...

Kafei continued to watch her admiringly, lightly stroking her chin,

cheeks, and neck with the flower's blossom, until he noted the change

in her expression, "Is something wrong?"

"No. Not at all." she smiled, leaning into the gentle brushing of the

fragile petals on her skin. Her eyes shut briefly as she sighed

contentedly. Sadly, she came to the realization that much time had

passed by now and it wouldn't be such a bad idea to return to her

home and... dispose of her mother as best as possible. But she could

always return _whenever_ she liked.

Expression falling, Anju spoke softly. "Kafei, I think I should be going now..."

As she spoke those last words, he felt a stinging in his throat as he

choked back a response. It would be best for her to... find out on her

own that she was incapable of leaving. "I'll... walk you out." He said dryly, swallowing hard as he took

her hand again and slowly lead her to the exit. Once there, he stopped

several feet short of the light, and crossed his arms over his chest, watching, and waiting...

"Goodbye..."


	12. Thank You

Much thanks to Blu for suggesting the idea of this chapter to me, and thanks to Hustino (and Blu again) for beta-ing it for me:D

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Anju smiled slightly and nodded a goodbye and then turned to face the exit of the well. As she stepped into the light of the moon, she paused, looking up and blinking as if she were disoriented. After a moment of this, she shook her head and started towards the latter. As soon as her foot touched the first groove in the wall, there came an unnatural groaning from back in the well, causing Anju to stop. She squinted and peered back into the darkness, past Kafei, not even noting the rather bothered expression on his face. A moment later and shadowy hands reached out from the darkness, roughly grabbing Anju and throwing her back into the well.

She landed with a soft thud as her back hit the wall and she sank to the floor. The groaning subsided and the hands disappeared leaving a confused Anju staring at Kafei in shock. He turned to face her, cringing, before regaining his 'composure' and brought a more solemn look to his features. With a distressed sound and a frustrated growl, Anju stood up and tried to leave again, only to be stopped by Kafei's arm protruding in front of her.

"Anju...don't. You'll ending up hurting yourself..."

"Let me go!" She replied, despair in her voice, not wanting to admit what she knew to be true now.

"You can't-"

"You said I could!" She bit her lip and looked up at him with teary eyes, struggling to get past him still.

"I...was wrong." At this, Anju let out another frustrated sound, then pushed hard against his arm. This resulted in him pushing back...though a bit too much bringing Anju to stumble backwards into a wall. Teary eyed, she looked up at him with a quiet sob, and then turned to run into the shadowy depths of the well. He began to reach out after her, but then sighed and stopped, allowing his arm to fall back to his side. He turned his head slightly, looking up at the teasing moonlight with a disapproving sneer, and then slowly made his way back beneath the well again.

It was as if the past was repeating itself. Anju was running aimlessly about the well, hysterical, and with no clue of where she was or where to go. She was trying to find a way out. Any way out that would _let_ her out...but it was the same as it had been back then. There was no other way out, no matter how much she wished there was. Even so, she refused to admit this, and kept pushing herself to run further and further, turning corner after corner, until finally she had to stop. By then she was crying, her lungs burning, her limbs tired and worn, too confused and rattled to have any idea where she was.

Wherever that may have been, she stayed there for what seemed like hours. Her sense of time had long since been absent. Regaining her composure proved to be harder than she would have liked, but even so, she managed to settle herself down after a while.

Looking up from her tear-stained hands, she absorbed her surroundings. She had seen this room before...briefly, however. It was a murky sort of room, more so than the rest of the well. Hanging moss covered the ceiling, and most of the floor was flooded with putrid smelling stagnant water, twisted and deformed hands reaching up from the muck in their forever preserved last attempt to grasp onto life. Blinking slowly, she wiped her eyes, and then noted the various redeads scattered about the room, staring lifelessly at her. She wasn't scared, though; she didn't have the energy to be frightened.

"He's not very good with things like this." She blinked as she heard the most human voice she had heard beneath the well since...Kafei. As she felt a hand on her shoulder, she looked over her shoulder to find a redead behind her, looking down at her. She jumped at first, her instincts telling her to run, but then noted something that changed her mind. It's wooden mask was broken near the chin; just like the one that had helped her a few weeks ago when she fell...and now, she understood him...it. Completely.

She was too busy thinking to give a response, so she just stared up at it blankly. The redead seemed to smile at this; well, whatever could have been considered a smile for it. It didn't have much of a mouth left; just most of it's teeth and a few strands of flesh that could have been lips at one time.

"Wh...what?" Anju finally managed to get out. The redead moved to sit next to her, being sure to leave a comfortable amount of space between them.

"Kafei. He...isn't around people that much." The following sound it made could have been taken as a laugh.

"Oh..."

"He really cares about you. Every other villager to come down here...well..." Her turned his head, resulting in a few snapping sounds, and then turned back to look at Anju, "...look at us."

Anju sniffed, wiping her eyes again. It had a point. So far, she wasn't a decaying zombie.

"I don't think he knew that the curse was going to claim you so fast. If he had, he would have let you go a long time ago."

"What's your name...?" Anju sniffed not really wanting to tread on the subject of Kafei at the moment."

"...Alan." He replied, folding his hands...or what was left of them.

"I'm An-"

"I know."

"He never shuts up about you." Another redead from nearby piped in, but silenced himself as Alan looked to him.

Anju blinked at this, and then turned to Alan.

"Is that true?"

"Yes. He's always talking about you. Always."

She wiped her eyes a final time, but remained silent.

"Please forgive him." Anju laughed slightly at this.

"Here I am, getting relationship advice from a dead person..."

"Well you don't look too alive yourself, Anju." Her face fell rather solemn at this, and she looked away. Alan sighed, "Sorry."

"There you are!" A familiar voice sounded in the room, and Anju of course knew who it was. She said nothing, nor did she turn around to face him.

"Please," Alan whispered, "You're stuck down here now, so you might as well." Anju looked to the redead and smiled slightly, nodding a thank you. As she felt two hands on her waist, she stood and turned to face Kafei, hands finding their way to his chest.

"I'm sorry..." He managed to choke out quietly as if it were a chore. Anju could tell that he meant it, though, and so she didn't push him for more. She nodded in response, and then rested her head on his shoulder.

"I love you." She blurted out. As soon as her mouth closed, her eyes widened and her breath stopped, and she remained perfectly still against him.

There was a very long silence that seemed to last an eternity before Kafei finally whispered,

"Thank you."


	13. The Scribe

Wah...sorry for the long wait, guys. I've been so busy this summer, so I hope this chapter suffices for my lack of work. --; Many thanks to all of you who have reviewed!

And now I would like to take a moment to thank some people No, that doesn't mean this is the last chapter, but if I don't do it now I know I'll forget. -- Many thanks to Blu and Hustino for being my betas for this fic, and also to Shell for helping me write it.

Also, thanks to everyone who has done fanart. it makes me so happy to see that people like my fic enough to draw stuffs from it.

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Cerulean eyes fluttered open to what sounded like a constant scratching not too far off. Blinking hazily, Anju sat up and rubbed her eyes, only to find that an arm was draped over her waist. She blinked again, then turned around to find Kafei behind her, still asleep. She began to panic - she had forgot to go home. Now her mother was going to kill her, and...

Oh, wait.

She killed her mother, and now she couldn't leave the well.

Still oddly relieved by her previous act of homicide, Anju felt better. Soon the scratching noise caught her attention again, however, and she moved to quietly slip out of bed to dress herself. Looking back to Kafei, she smiled. Even if he was a terrifying shadow spirit bent on killing things, he looked particularly vulnerable in his sleep. She smirked, and then turned to leave.

She followed the scratching noise all around the well until she finally found her way into the room she had fell into a few months before. The floor was still covered is disgusting looking water, and a few random redeads wandered about seemingly aimlessly. Finally, her eyes set upon the source of the scratching. In the corner, seated on a fallen beam of wood, was another redead who seemed to be hunching over something. he moved closer to inspect, only to find that it wore a broken mask - Alan.

After taking a few moments to soak up some courage, Anju seated herself next to the redead, who practically jumped out of his seat as he noted her presence.

"Oh...hello, Anju." He said, and then looked back to what he was doing. Anju nodded a greeting, and then looked to his lap. Resting on what was left of his legs was a very old looking book. The parchment of the pages were tattered and torn and stained, and the cover was worn and the binding was falling apart. She glanced at the text; it was in Sheikah. Blinking, she then noted that the words just stopped in the middle of a page. She began to open her mouth to say something, but as if answering her question, Alan lifted his hand, and in it he held a en that seemed to be crafted out of a bone; specifically a finger. He began to write where the words left off, a rather unpleasant scratching sound occurring as he did so.

"...you woke me up." Anju teased as she watched him write.

"Oh...sorry, I didn't think it was that loud."

"Just joking." Anju smiled and began to read what he was writing, but she then remembered that she had no clue how to read Sheikah, "What are you writing?"

"A sequel, you might call it," was his only response.

"A sequel to...what?"

"A book I once wrote, if you must know. But that was a long time ago...back when I had a quill." He chuckled slightly and glanced at his finger-pen, and then looked to Anju.

The girl, however, was too busy staring at a small symbol at the top of the page he was writing on; an inverted Sheikah eye.

"I've seen that somewhere." She said, pointing to the eye. Alan stared at her, and then back to the book.

"The only place you would have seen that is my other book."

"You wrote Shadow Spirits!"

There was a very long and drawn out silence. The other redeads around the room were silenced and they all seemed to cease movement. Finally, Alan spoke.

"They didn't burn it?" He laughed, though it was very evident he was bothered by something.

"What are you talking about?" Anju queried, staring at him with a very confused look on her face. Alan let out a heavy sighed and closed the book on his lap, putting it aside. He then turned to slightly face the girl.

"Anju, there are many things about this well that you don't know...but maybe it's time you learned what really happened."

"I'm so confused..." She stated the obvious, absent-mindedly moving a hand up to rub at the irritated skin around one of her incoming horns.

"Just relax. This might take a while." He moved to face her entirely, slightly adjusting his broken mask, "You see, I wasn't always a redead..."

"Along time ago, just a decade or so after Kafei's above-ground days ended, I was appointed the Scribe of my generation of Sheikah. Yes, I was a Sheikah. The Great Impa, our leader-"

"Impa is still alive...how is that possible?"

"There have been many Impa's, Anju. The name is only given to the first born female in every generation of that bloodline - and she is always destined to lead our people. This Impa is not the same as the one in this tale."

"Oh...go on, then."

"As I was saying, The Great Impa wanted to prove to the villagers that there was no "evil" beneath the well as their lore told them.. She waited many years after Kafei's imprisonment to attempt this, however, in hopes that the peoples' rage had died down a bit since they murdered his mother. But the other people, not wanting to accept their own corruption, would not believe Impa. The Sheikah of the village knew better than this, and we believed Impa, for we knew that she was too great to lie and too strong to be manipulated into believing a falsity. Back then, Kafei was not known as an evil monster to the Sheikah...only t the Hylians in the village. This clash of opinions caused a constant friction between the villagers, both Sheikah and Hylian alike. To ease this friction and stop the quarelling, the Great Impa decided to prove to the villagers that there was no monster lurking beneath the village; just a misunderstood soul. Because I was the Scribe of our people, I was assigned to travel beneath the well, seek out Kafei, and record his life's story so that the villagers could recognize their mistake from a different perspective."

"They sent you down here? All alone?"

"Well, Anju, you have to consider that the Sheikah didn't consider the possibility of there being an evil down here, though I have to admit, I was rather frightened of the dark..." he laughed nervously, and then continued, "So I did as assigned and I travelled down here. I searched for many hours before I finally found him, sitting in an isolated room alone, grinning eerily to himself. Grinning...he was always grinning. It frightened me...and I never got used to it." He shook his head before continuing, "I introduced myself and told him why I was there, and he seemed to have no objection."

"So for many months I travelled down here every day, writing down everything he told me about his life...and his unlife. He told me how he used to sing and dance with the golden fox every night when he was a boy. He would play the bongoes and the fox would sing songs to him about far away places that he would never see. It would tell him many tales, and then give him ridiculously hard quizzes after he finished. He still loved it, though. He had a friend, even if it wasn't human. He told me that he remembered walking through the village and getting hateful glares, and hearing people whisper that he was the devil as he walked past. He didn't understand why everyone hated him. because of this, he never talked much; he just kept to himself and to the two people who understood him - his mother and the ghost fox, Keaton. He didn't comprehend what he was, or even what he is now. He still doesn't. No one does."

"Why did they kill his mother?" Anju ask, finding herself interested and leaning forward.

"Well, angry villagers will always be cliche angry villagers, I suppose. For protecting him and housing him in her home, they suspected her of being some sort of dark sorceress. Kafei told me that, while being schooled, the other children would laugh at him and tell him that his mother was an evil witch who was planning to take over Hyrule. It infuriated him and made him cry, but he never hurt anyone because of it...not once. And yet they still hated him and his mother...until finally, they killed his mother and Impa sealed him in the well for protection. He was terrified at first, as well as mentally torn from the loss of his mother. He lived down here for years and years, his body adapting to the curse infesting the well-"

"Why did Impa curse the well if she was trying to protect him? That doesn't make sense."

"It makes perfect sense, if you think about it. The curse wasn't designed to hurt or kill Kafei, but to scare the villagers into staying out of the well and away from him. If she hadn't done anything, they would have raided the well the next day and then he would have been killed, too."

Anju thought about it for a moment, and then nodded as a signal for Alan to continue.

"The Keaton visited Kafei every now and then, keeping him company, teaching him how to use the curse to his advantage. Soon, the curse became a part of Kafei. It gave him many powers but in return made him the monster that the villagers had suspected him of being years before. Villagers had heard laughing and seen shadows dancing around the well at night, and so he became known as The Shadow Spirit...which is basically what he had become; a prince of the Netherworld who could dance with the shadows, play with the shadows, and control the shadows."

Alan stopped as if finished, and then turned to pick up the book again.

"But...Alan, how did you end up like...this?" Anju asked, placing a hand on his rotted shoulder. There was a very long silence, until finally Alan spoke again.

"...I was hoping you wouldn't ask that." He put down the book again, and looked down as if he was building up courage to say something, "On one particular visit...my last...'visit', I asked him about his father."

"Oh yes, I was wondering why I never heard about his father."

"He didn't have one. When he told me this, I made the mistake of assuming he meant that he didn't know who is father was. And then...I made the even worse mistake of asking him if his mother was a whore."

Anju cringed. Yes, Alan, that was definitely a bad move.

"...he strangled me then and there, and I never left again. I woke up what must have been weeks later, reeking of rotting flesh and falling apart. Kafei said that a few days after my death, another Sheikah came down to check on me. When he found me, he just narrowly escaped with the book I had literally devoted my life to... but...that's all past. Kafei and have made up. Being trapped in a well with someone for centuries will do that to you, I suppose." He tried to make light of the situation, but there was still an air of sadness about his voice.

"So...what are you writing about now?" Anju asked, attempting to change the subject.

"The same thing, you could say. Call it a journal, even. "


	14. Metamorphosis

**This is my last post on ffnet. I am sick and tired of all the stupid flamers on this site. I'm tired and annoyed with all of the unnecessary rules that are enforced, and the necessary rules that are rarely enforced. I am annoyed that the original section was taken down, and I am annoyed that one of my stories was taken down without warning because it 'wasn't rated properly' even though it had the highest rating available. I am annoyed because the TOS aren't comprehensible, and I am annoyed by the poorly-maintained site in general. I am bothered that I have to block certain users AND anonymous reviews just to keep stupid flames from clogging up my reviews. If you don't like my fic, then don't read it. I'm not asking you to praise my fic if it doesn't appeal to you, but I AM asking that you provide constructive criticism as opposed to idiotic and uncalled for cursing and bashing. It's fine if you hate it. But keep it to your damn self.  
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**I will keep all of my old fics up here (that is, if ffnet decides to keep them up). But if you wish to continue reading updates on Shadow Spirits, or you wish to see any new fics I post up, please see my account at FicWad (I'm still under the name Rambeltilx.) To all of me reviewers and fans – thank you for your support. You are not unappreciated. I love you all.**

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Days had been dark in Kakariko, growing darker as the days passed. Anju's mother had been mysteriously killed, not to mention Anju had been missing for almost a week. The normal village was stuck between a state of panic and a state of fear; children were not allowed out after dark, and their parents were scared to as well. What with a murderer and a kidnaper on the loose, it seemed that nobody was safe.

All were scared, that is, except one woman; the old potion shop woman who only few knew to be Anju's grandmother. She walked about the town, at day and night, not letting her usual schedule be affected by all the happenings. The other villagers just thought her to be insane - even a few of them tried to help her back to her home- but she just batted their hands away and continued on.

"Ma'am, please...it's not safe out. For you, or for me...so please, can we just get you home so I can get indoors too?" A carpenter from the village, Jiro, was just heading in for the night when he spotted the old woman just heading out to the field.

"Bah!" She slapped away the hand hovering over her upper arm and continued on her way, "Then go back to your home, boy, I have herbs to pick. They only bloom at night, so you'd best let me go."

"But ma'am, it's not safe. What with Miss Anju missing and her mother murdered, we can't be sure when it's safe to go out. Please..."

"It's perfectly safe, boy. There's no murderer in this village...not anymore. And it's hardly a kidnaping when the kidnaped party was 'napped on her own accord."

"But...what?" Jiro took her statement as the ramblings of a crazy old lady, but continued to urge her home anyways. He attempted to reason with her, "Anju disappeared at the same time her mother was murdered, so it's probably the same person...and who would run off with the murderer of the murderer of their own mother?"

"Anju wasn't kidnaped," The old lady snapped, finally reaching the gates of the village, "If you want to find her, you should look in the well. But I can assure you, boy, you'll be coming back with empty hands..." The old woman laughed slightly as she descended the steps, leaving Jiro standing at the gates, looking confused.

The potion woman was renound for being a bit insane. Surely Anju wasn't in the well - there was no reason for her to be, and besides...the evil spirit that haunted the well was gone, so it wasn't as if she would be under it's spell or anything of that sort. Rubbing his head, the carpenter turned around to look at the well. He smirked and laughed to himself, shaking his head as he began to head to his home. This path took him across the center of the village, however, and he stopped briefly.

The well was right next to him - the plain, worn, stone well that had been in the village for so long. He peeked over the edge and into it's beckoning darkness, the faint scent of heavy musk and mossy water drifting up into his nose. He glanced over his shoulder, looking around to see if anybody else was out. Of course not...it was after dusk. He looked back into the well and raised a brow. Well...it couldn't hurt to just _check_ down there. After all, if he happened to find Anju, he would be a hero. He rolled up the sleeves on his shirt, licked his dry lips, and then climbed over the side of the well and began his slow descent down the old and seemingly unstable ladder mounted along the side.

Before he had realized it, darkness had enveloped him and he could no longer determine where the ladder ended. At this point, he had to stop and question his resolve. Blinking in the surrounding darkness, Jiro paused after a shiver ran down his spine. There was nothing to be afraid of, the Hero of Time had destroyed the evil that had dwelled beneath the well, after all. Reassured, he continued his indefinite descent into the well. Despite the fact that he very well knew that it was foolish to let a little darkness scare him, he couldn't keep out of his mind the stories known throughout the village of the evil spirit, as well as the very real fact that Miss Anju was missing while her mother had been brutally murdered. Another chill gripped his senses, and Jiro jumped as his shoe came into contact with something. The panic that swept through his mind told him that it was the murderer or the evil spirit trying to grab at his leg and pull him down into the hellish depths below. However, moments later, relief washed over him, he had reached the bottom of the well. Or was that really something to be relieved about?

Shaking his head, the carpenter dropped down from the ladder and turned around to survey his surroundings. Everything was completely hidden by shadow, the only, rather faint, light that fell down came from the opening of the well far above him. As he waited for his eyes to finally adjust, Jiro's mind wandered. What if the murderer was hiding in the well? A criminal mastermind would try to use the villagers' fear of the well to his advantage, right? What better place to hide than a once cursed well? Then again... he was following the direction of the village lunatic. What really made him think that Anju was actually in this well, after all the old woman had been saying was nonsense? But... the old woman could be on the side of the murderer. What if the murderer was really just waiting down in the well for another victim, sent down here unknowingly by the old loony?

Concluding that his venture was going to prove futile, he heard a rustle of clothing behind him, causing him once again to jump. Hand grabbing onto the cloth of his shirt that rest over his heart, he turned around, and braced himself for the worst. What he found, however, was just the meek looking form of... no one other than Miss Anju, standing several feet away. A heavy sigh of relief escaped his mouth. Just as he opened his mouth to greet her, he gasped -taken aback upon further studying the girl before him. She looked a ghost of what she had been a week ago, much more pale for one, with the tint of her lips no longer a healthy shade of pink, but the faintest shade of purplish blue. Reflectionless cerulean eyes lay upon him, frightened and wanting. She looked cold and worn, her hands clutched around her upper arms as she shivered. He stepped forward to her, placing his large hands over hers, opening his mouth to speak.

"Thank Din you're here!" Anju cut him off, biting her lip, tears welling up in her pathetic-looking blue eyes, "It's been so long since I've seen anyone living!" She burst into sobs, collapsing against his chest, moving to clutch onto the front of his shirt. Jiro opened his mouth again, but again, the girl cut him off, "It's been so horrible down here. I'm being held prisoner...by the evil spirit beneath the well...the Hero of Time didn't defeat it after all. It's still here, and it's bound me by black magic!" She broke into sobs again, slightly beating on his chest with her fists, "It's so cold down here...my clothes are ruined..." She stepped back to show him her clothes, which were indeed torn and tattered - ripped at the edges, and nearly falling off. He was about to respond, when, "Please, Jiro, bring me some fresh clothes..." She gave him the most pathetic look he had ever seen. Nodding dumbly, Jiro let himself be turned around, slightly more forcefully than a malnourished girl should have been able to push, and moved to climb back up the ladder. As soon as the man seemed to topple over the opening of the well, the same reflectionless cerulean eyes that were just frightened and wanting moments ago were sharply focused and predatory, as the purplish blue lips curled into a slight smirk.

It hadn't been too long before Jiro returned, arms full of clothes that nearly made him loose grip of the ladder descending back into the well, which would have led to a rather nasty fall. Instead, articles of clothing fell instead, for Jiro had decided on his way to aquire clothes for Anju that his first priority was rescuing her, rather than dressing her. Jumping once he only had five more feet to go, he turned to see the poor girl behind him, with a slightly hopeful look now on her face. "Thank you so much -thank you!" she exclaimed graciously. Jiro smiled reassuringly, before nodding. "Now, Miss Anju..." the first words he was able to get out were soon cut off. "You must help me!" she cried, hugging the clothing he had brought down for dear life. "Well, yes, I plan to..."

"You have to face him for me!"

"Face what -who?"

"You must! You have to! There's no other way..." Anju spoke hurriedly, taking Jiro's arm and pulling him quickly toward a stone wall. "But Miss Anju, that's a-" And through the wall they went.

Many twists and turns later, they were faced with a rather gruesome looking door. It was, in it's own nature, rather plain - old wood stripped with metal. But it was coated in what seemed to be dried blood. There were claw marks scratched along the wood and metal, filled with what looked like a bit more moist blood. Anju stopped and turned to face Jiro, who had gone quite pale at the site. Gulping, he put his hands on the door as if to push it down...but before he had the chance to even attempt this, it slid open and he stumbled inside, followed by Anju.

A head of deep violet hair lolled back against the armrest of a menacing looking chair in the center a vast stone room that seemed to trail off into a dark oblivion. What looked to be a young man casually thrown back into a chair seemed to be peacefully napping as Anju and the carpenter entered the room. Jiro's eyes widened, before he searched the room -where was this evil being, and how many more innocent people were being held here against their will? However, Anju only continued to move Jiro closer to the young man on the chair. As he was forced nearer, he noted the three yellow tails draped over the arm of the chair, and then realized that they were attached to the man. He looked over his shoulder at Anju, who nodded and held her arms over her chest, taking a step back. Jiro looked to the sleeping figure again and began to proceed on his own. The young man on the chair now stirred, stunning garnet eyes fluttering open -only to glare at Jiro. "Anju... what is it? And who the hell is this?" the voice that left the young man's lips was surprisingly much more fatigued than his facial expression let on.

"He's here to _rescue _me." She said as if frightened, though her facial expression, which was hidden to Jiro at the moment, was one of smug content. The young man just laughed, which to Jiro seemed menacing. The carpenter hunched slightly, holding his arms in front of him as if preparing to punch his lights out. The young man in the chair just raised a brow, yawned, and looked off to the side, leaving Jiro clueless. He proceeded to do nothing, except halfway doze off again. He began to advance on this seemingly mocking behavior, when he felt a frail hand on his shoulder turn him around rather forcefully, "For good luck..." Anju said, gazing up at him with her hollow eyes, hands sliding to either side of his head as she leaned up to kiss his cheek. Just as her lips grazed his skin, however, there came a loud cracking of human bone, and Anju released his head, allowing his dead body to crumple onto the ground.

"Anju!" Kafei growled, sitting up, smoothing his hair out, "Why did you have to go and do that in here? We _live_ in this room!"

"I just broke his neck, at least there wasn't any blood..." Anju pouted, looking up at Kafei pathetically.

A moment or two passed with Anju pouting and Kafei frowning, before a playful smile crossed his features. He gestured her over to him, to which she followed, moving to promptly straddle him. "I love it when you do that..." Kafei trailed off in a seductive tone, Anju now smirking before they leaned into a passionate kiss. Poor Jiro would soon realize that the murderer he was so afraid of really had been waiting for their next victim beneath the well... and that they so happened to be one and the same as the missing girl he had been trying to rescue. But yes... he would all come to know this in a few days time... and then he could have a nice chat with Alan.


End file.
